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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

By Dr Ahmed Al-Mandhari, WHO Regional Director for the Eastern Mediterranean  24 February 2022, Cairo, Egypt – I am shocked and deeply outraged by the killing of 8 polio health workers, 4 of them women, in Afghanistan today. I extend my deepest condolences to the families, friends, and colleagues of those who have lost their lives. As a result of...

Kabul, 17 January 2022 – The first national polio immunization campaign for 2022 begins this week, 17-20 January 2022, targeting 9.9 million children aged 0–59 months across the country. The recent campaign in November 2021 delivered polio vaccinations to 8.5 million children under the age of 5 while the December campaign vaccinated more than 8 million...

Kabul, 16 December 2021 – In response to the current gap in Afghanistan in standardized management of trauma patients and to improve survivability from injuries, the World Health Organization (WHO) organized a 10-day training in the WHO/ICRC Basic Emergency Care Course in Kabul from 7 to 16 December 2021. Funded by USAID, the course aimed to...

KABUL, 13 December 2021 - The fourth round of a national polio immunization campaign begins this week (13–16 December 2021), and will be synchronized with Pakistan to improve cross-border polio eradication efforts. The campaign targets 9.9 million children aged 0–59 months across the country and is scheduled to start later this month in some parts...

23 November 2021 – With all the odds against her – born too early, born too small – the tiny baby in the neonatal intensive care ward at Malalay Maternity Hospital in Kabul is still clinging on, struggling for every breath, grasping every extra minute of life. She does not know it, but those caring for her are also struggling on, minute by...