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Afghanistan vaccinates 5.36 million children against measles and 6.1 million children against polio in a nationwide campaign
22 December 2022, Kabul — Afghanistan has vaccinated 5.36 million Afghan children 9–59 months against measles while 6.1 million children 0-59 months received oral polio vaccine in a nationwide vaccination campaign held from 26 November to 12 December 2022. Based on the data from Afghanistan's Ministry of Public Health Expanded Programme on...
Italy commits €6 million to improve equitable access to health care facilities in Afghanistan
21 December 2022, Kabul, Afghanistan – The Government of Italy, via the Italian Agency for Development Cooperation (Pakistan and Afghanistan offices), has allocated €6 million to the World Health Organization (WHO) in Afghanistan to improve people’s access to health services in primary and secondary health care facilities in 5 provinces: Hilmand,...
Polio surveillance review yields results in Afghanistan
The site at Pezand Pana Dafter in Nangarhar province has produced 3 positive environmental samples since coming online in September19 December 2022 – Recommendations from the international review of Afghanistan’s poliovirus surveillance system are yielding important results for the country’s eradication programme. The review team, comprising...
EU contributes €16 million to improve mental health and drug use disorder services in Afghanistan
WHO and the EU renew their partnership to further support mental health service delivery in Afghanistan. Photo: WHO/Zakarya Safari. From left to right: Ms Karin Gatt-Rutter, Team Leader, Education, Health, Migration of the EU Delegation to Afghanistan; Ms Raffaella Iodice, EU Chargée d’Affaires and Deputy Head of Delegation to Afghanistan; Dr Jamshed...
Afghanistan completes largest ever review of polio surveillance system
The reviewers visited 76 districts in 25 of the country’s 34 provinces, interviewing 899 people20 September 2022 – For the last 2 decades, the prospect of sending 16 visiting polio experts out across the provinces of Afghanistan would have been impossible but from 6 to 19 June 2022, WHO Afghanistan’s polio eradication programme did just that....
Diary of a polio surveillance reviewer: 8 days in Afghanistan’s west
21 August 2022 – In June 2022, a team of technical experts including epidemiologists and virologists travelled to Afghanistan to review the country’s polio surveillance system, visiting 67 districts in 25 of the country’s 34 provinces. Dr Abdinoor Mohamed, an epidemiologist with the Global Polio Eradication Initiative, was one of them. He tells us...
Afghanistan makes progress toward polio eradication but challenges remain
A child is vaccinated during a nationwide polio campaign in January 2022. Seven national and one subnational campaign have taken place since 15 August last year 15 August 2022 – One year on from Afghanistan’s transition of power in August 2021, the polio eradication programme in Afghanistan has made critical gains – but the job is far from...
Outbreak update – Dengue fever in Afghanistan, 4 August 2022
4 August 2022 – A new wave of dengue fever has been confirmed in Afghanistan with a total of 64 cases reported between 12 June and 30 July 2022 from Nangarhar province only, with no associated deaths. Of the 64 reported cases, 47 (73.4%) were female, and all were over 5 years of age. “Afghanistan is already battling a mix of complex humanitarian...
WHO’s polio team responds to devastating earthquake in Afghanistan
5 July 2022 – When disaster strikes, coordination is key. Within hours of the 5.9 magnitude earthquake striking the communities of Afghanistan’s South East in the early morning of 22 June, WHO’s polio team was on the ground joining forces with UN agencies and NGOs to ensure an effective and coordinated relief effort. As dawn broke across the...
Measles vaccination campaign kicks off in Afghanistan to fight ongoing outbreak: around 1.2 million children in 24 provinces to get vaccinated
WHO Representative in Afghanistan Dr Luo Dapeng joins the measles vaccination campaign and vaccinates a child in Malek Mohammad Khan District Hospital in Wardak Province, Afghanistan, on 13 March 2022 Kabul, 14 March 2022 – More than 1.2 million children aged 6–59 months are planned to be vaccinated during the ongoing measles vaccination campaign in...
