First polio case found in Afghanistan in more than decade

Afghanistan launched a three-day vaccination campaign on Tuesday after a three-year-old girl was diagnosed with polio in the capital city of Kabul.
The Health Ministry said the girl became paralysed and she was diagnosed as the nation’s first polio case in more than 10 years.
“We immediately launched a three-day campaign to prevent the transfer of polio virus to other children,” it said.
Afghanistan, Pakistan and Nigeria are the only three countries in the world where the disease is endemic, according to the Global Polio Eradication Initiative.
A health worker in Kabul told dpa that the disease had been nearly eradicated in the country.
“The ministry found the first case of polio and launched the extraordinary vaccination campaign in winter in Kabul,” the worker, Mohammad Javed, said.
The vaccinations are normally launched during the summer.
“Each team goes to 320 houses per day and asks if they have children under the age of five who have not been vaccinated,” Javed said.
Unlike in Pakistan, the Afghan Taliban militants have said they would not threaten the vaccination campaigners.
dpa/NAN.