Warring Afghan parties agree to ceasefire during polio vaccination campaign: UN
6 October -- The United Nations Coordinator for Afghanistan announced today that the parties fighting the country's long-running civil war have agreed to a temporary ceasefire that will allow the UN and its partners to vaccinate millions of children against polio.
Both the Taliban and the Northern Alliance will hold their fire during the next round of national immunization days, to be held from 10 to 12 October and 13 to 15 November. UN agencies such as the World Health Organization and the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) will work with local authorities, non-governmental organizations and other partners to reach a targeted 5.33 million Afghan children.
All children from birth up to 5 years of age need to be immunized, and the UN plans special measures to cover internally displaced children, nomads, people crossing borders and other hard-to-reach populations.
According to the Islamabad-based Office of the UN Coordinator for Afghanistan, vaccinators will follow a "house-to-house" strategy to ensure that no child is missed. Previous immunization rounds, held in May and June, demonstrated that female volunteers are especially effective, and the agencies hope to repeat this success during the coming campaign.
Still endemic in 30 countries, polio can cripple children for life and even kill them. The international community has set the target date of 2005 to eradicate polio from the world. The UN estimates that in addition to saving lives, this achievement will lead to worldwide annual savings of $1.5 billion realized through the end of vaccine programmes as well as averted health care costs.
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