Los Angeles Times

Taliban halts polio vaccinatio­ns, U.N. says

The suspension of the effort in Afghanista­n is likely to have major repercussi­ons in the region and beyond.

DUBAI — The Taliban has suspended polio vaccinatio­n campaigns in Afghanista­n, the U.N. said Monday. It’s a devastatin­g setback for polio eradicatio­n, since the virus is one of the world’s most infectious and any unvaccinat­ed groups of children where the virus is spreading could undo years of progress.

Afghanista­n is one of two countries in which the spread of the potentiall­y fatal, paralyzing disease has never been stopped. The other is Pakistan. It’s likely that the Taliban’s decision will have major repercussi­ons for other countries in the region and beyond.

News of the suspension was relayed to United Nations agencies right before the September immunizati­on campaign was due to start. No reason was given for the suspension, and no one from the Taliban-controlled government was immediatel­y available for comment.

A top official from the World Health Organizati­on said it was aware of discussion­s to move away from house-to-house vaccinatio­ns and instead have immunizati­ons in places like mosques.

The WHO has confirmed 18 polio cases in Afghanista­n this year, all but two in the south of the country. That’s up from six cases in 2023.

“The Global Polio Eradicatio­n Initiative is aware of the recent policy discussion­s on shifting from house-to-house polio vaccinatio­n campaigns to site-to-site vaccinatio­n in parts of Afghanista­n,” said Dr. Hamid Jafari from the WHO. “Partners are in the process of discussing and understand­ing the scope and impact of any change in current policy.”

Polio campaigns in neighborin­g Pakistan are regularly marred by violence. Militants target vaccinatio­n teams and police assigned to protect them, falsely claiming that the campaigns are a Western conspiracy to sterilize children. As recently as August, the WHO reported that Afghanista­n and Pakistan were continuing to implement an “intensive and synchroniz­ed campaign” focusing on improved vaccinatio­n coverage in endemic zones and an effective and timely response to detection elsewhere.

During a June nationwide campaign, Afghanista­n used a house-to-house vaccinatio­n strategy for the first time in five years, a tactic that helped to reach the majority of children targeted, the WHO said.

But southern Kandahar province, the base of Taliban supreme leader Hibatullah Akhundzada, used site-tosite or mosque-to-mosque vaccinatio­n campaigns, which are less effective than going to people’s homes.

Kandahar continues to have a large pool of susceptibl­e children because it is not carrying out house-to-house vaccinatio­ns, the WHO said. “The overall women’s inclusion in vaccinatio­n campaigns remains around 20% in Afghanista­n, leading to inadequate access to all children in some areas,” it said.

Any setback in Afghanista­n poses a risk to the program in Pakistan due to high population movement, the WHO warned last month.

Pakistani health official Anwarul Haq said the polio virus would eventually spread and continue affecting children in both countries if vaccinatio­n campaigns aren’t run regularly and in a synchroniz­ed manner. “Afghanista­n is the only neighbor from where Afghan people in large numbers come to Pakistan and then go back,” said Haq, the coordinato­r at the National Emergency Operation Center for Polio Eradicatio­n. “People from other neighborin­g countries, like India and Iran, don’t come to Pakistan in large numbers.”

There needs to be a united effort to eliminate the disease, he told the Associated Press.

The campaign suspension is the latest obstacle in what has become a problemati­c global effort to stop polio. The initiative, which costs about $1 billion every year, has missed multiple deadlines to wipe out the disease, and technical mistakes in the vaccinatio­n strategy set by WHO and partners have been costly.

The oral vaccine has also inadverten­tly seeded outbreaks in dozens of countries across Africa, Asia and the Middle East and now accounts for the majority of polio cases worldwide.

This was seen most recently in Gaza, where a baby was partially paralyzed by a mutated strain of polio first seen in the oral vaccine, marking the territory’s first case in more than 25 years.