Afghanistan Times
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KABUL: The number of polio positive cases in Afghanistan has reached to 10th so far in 2019, where forth of it only reported from Uruzgan province with a new one detected in Mehr Abad area of Tirinkot, the provincial capital.
According to Ministry of Public Health, a 21-month-old girl is permanently paralyzed in Tirinkot, making it 10th cases of polio in Afghanistan so far.
Health ministry in a statement said that last week another polio case reported from Trinkot, which paralyzed a 30-month-old boy.
House-to-house polio campaigns were banned in this area since May 2018. This means children under five living in the area have not been vaccinated and protected from the virus since then, the ministry added.
Only one out of 10 polio cases were reported from Eastern Kunar province while the rest have been reported from the southern region: 4- case in Urozgan, 3 -in Helmand and 2- case in Kandahar.
“Access to health services is the right of every citizen of the country,” said Dr. Ferozuddin Feroz, the Minister of Public Health of Afghanistan, “we are deeply concerned about the increasing polio cases and the number of children who still don’t have consistent access to vaccination. The virus could spread and more children will be affected and paralyzed by polio virus in Afghanistan. I ask everyone to work together and protect innocent children against polio, to provide a safe and secure environment for our frontline workers to vaccinate children in every corner of the country.”
The polio vaccine is safe, even for sick and newborn children. It is very important that newborns and sick children get the vaccine, because they may have lower immunity which makes them more susceptible to the virus.
Polio vaccination has also been strongly endorsed by national and global Islamic scholars, the statement added.
