Afghanistan-wide polio vaccination starts next month: UN

Afghanistan will kick off its first countrywide polio immunisation campaign in years next month to protect millions of unvaccinated children, the UN said yesterday.

The United Nations' health and children's agencies said the campaign to vaccinate against the crippling and potentially fatal disease would begin on November 8, with full support from the Taliban leadership.

"WHO and Unicef welcome the decision by the Taliban leadership supporting the resumption of house-to-house polio vaccination across Afghanistan," they said in a statement.

Since the Taliban swept back into power two months ago, the UN had been talking with the group's leadership to address the towering health challenges in the country, the statement said.

"The Taliban leadership has expressed their commitment for the inclusion of female frontline workers," it said.

Afghanistan's new rulers had also committed to "providing security and assuring the safety of all health workers across the country, which is an essential prerequisite for the implementation of polio vaccination campaigns," the agencies said.

That marks a dramatic about-face from the Islamists' position during their years of insurgency against the ousted Western-backed government.

Due in large part to Taliban opposition to door-to-door vaccination campaigns, which they suspected were being used to spy on their activities, no campaigns with countrywide reach have been carried out in over three years.