January 17, 2012 - President Hamid Karzai expresses his deepest concern over the polio cases still present in some insecure areas in Afghanistan and across the Durand Line.
Latest reports by the Ministry of Public Health demonstrate a three-fold rise in the number of polio cases in 2011 compared to that of 2010. The report that covered 2011 shows 80 cases in Afghanistan with 62 in the south of the country including in the province of Farah.
Deeply concerned by the increase in polio cases, the President stresses that those who stand in the way of vaccination are the true enemies of our children’s future.
President Karzai called on the armed opposition to allow the vaccination teams to help save children against the lifetime paralysis. “Despite all the past efforts to vaccinate millions against polio, there are still children suffering from the disease on both sides of the Durand Line”, adds the President.
The President appeals to religious scholars, Mullahs and community leaders and elders to cooperate with the immunization teams by persuading the opposition to allow vaccinators to administer polio drops to children against the permanent paralysis.