The second round of a 2017 anti-polio campaign called Sub-National Immunisation Days will be launched today in high-risk areas to vaccinate 5.6 million children under the age of five. A press release from the Ministry of Public Health sent to Killid stated that the campaign will be conducted in all provinces in the southern and south-eastern regions as well as selected high-risk districts across the country, including Kabul. The statement added that the campaign will run for three days, during which over 36,000 polio workers will go from house to house in their communities to vaccinate children. Health Minister Firozuddin Firoz said that polio causes permanent disability or even death and added that only through these life-saving vaccines polio can be eradicated from Afghanistan. The statement further stated that two polio cases have been reported in 2017 from Helmand and Kandahar provinces. This comes as 13 polio cases were reported in 2016 across the country. Afghanistan, Pakistan and Nigeria are the only countries where polio is still prevalent.
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