GARDEZ - During a three-day anti polio campaign which concluded today, over 828,000 children under five years of age received anti-polio drops in the south-eastern provinces including Paktya, Paktika, Khost and Ghazni.

The drive was jointly launched by the Ministry of Public Health (MoPH), the United Nations World Health Organization (WHO) and the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) in a bid to eradicate the disease from the region.

According to WHO, 5,040 workers went door-to-door in all the four provinces and administered the children with anti-polio vaccine drops under the supervision of 379 supervisors.

It is worth-mentioning that five positive cases — three in Khost and two in Paktya — had been registered during 2012.

“Fortunately we have no any polio positive case in the entire region since January this year,” said a WHO medial officer, Dr. Razul Hassan.

During the campaign, a special appeal was made to religious scholars, community leaders, civil society and education institutions’ representatives to extend all possible cooperation with the anti-polio campaign teams in order to make the drive a success.

By UNAMA Gardez