Cease-Fire needed for polio campaign in Afghanistan

Islamabad (Office of the United Nations Co-ordinator for Afghanistan), 18 May 2001 -- The next round in the fight against polio in Afghanistan will be from 19 to 21 May. 5.7 million Afghan children need to be vaccinated during the next National Immunisation Days (NIDs), for which a cease-fire is crucial. Both sides had agreed with UNICEF and WHO to respect a cease-fire during the polio immunisation campaigns in 2000 and in March and April 2001. It is trusted that this will be the case again. Every child from birth up to five years of age must be vaccinated.
UNICEF funds all vaccines required for the NIDs plus operational costs, human resources, equipment/supplies, and social mobilisation activities and materials. In total, UNICEF will spend almost US$ 5 million for the five NIDs rounds in 2001. In addition to UNICEF's general resources, which come from various donors, the major donors for UNICEF's support to the NIDs in Afghanistan are the US Centre for Disease Control and Rotary International. The World Health Organisation (WHO) covers the training of volunteers, logistics, social mobilisation, and staff and operational costs, and has allocated US$ 5 million for 2001. WHO also supports the entire polio surveillance system in Afghanistan. Funding for WHO's involvement in polio eradication comes from WHO's general resources, the UN Foundation, and Rotary International.

For this round, new information materials were prepared for all volunteers. The volunteers and all partners involved will make additional efforts to ensure that mothers as well fathers receive and understand the key messages about the polio campaign and other immunisations needed for their children.

About 34,000 volunteers, 3,300 social mobilisers and 2,500 supervisors are involved in each round of the campaign. A very broad range of national and international NGOs, religious leaders, teachers, community leaders and others are also involved in the implementation and in mobilising and informing the public.

The Global Eradication Initiative is a world-wide initiative, spearheaded by UNICEF, WHO, Rotary International and the US Centre for Disease Control. Last year a record of 550 million children were vaccinated in 82 countries. When the global campaign started in 1988, the poliovirus circulated in 125 countries. Today, the virus is found in only 20 countries. As there is no cure for polio, the best treatment is prevention, and the final goal is to eradicate polio from the world.

Since both Afghanistan and Pakistan are the most important remaining reservoir of wild poliovirus, the dates of the NIDs in Afghanistan are synchronised with the NIDs in Pakistan to ensure full coverage of those children who might be crossing the border. This prevents cross border transmission of the virus. The next round of polio vaccination in Afghanistan will be in September 2001.

For further information, please contact: Dr. Solofo Ramaroson, Officer in Charge, UNICEF Afghanistan, Tel: 92 300 8556298 or Dr. Naveed Sadozai, EPI Officer, WHO Afghanistan, Tel: 92-51-2211224, 2211692.