In an effort to eradicate polio and boost health measures for children in Afghanistan, the Taliban government has agreed to restart a door-to-door vaccination programme next month, and will allow women to be frontline workers in the drive, health officials announced on Tuesday (Oct 19).

The announcement, by the World Health Organisation and United Nations Children’s Fund, is a breakthrough in a country that has been called the “world’s polio capital,” a place where vaccinators have faced the twin challenges of a lack of access to patients and deadly violence.

The five-day nationwide programme to distribute the polio vaccine, which is given orally and in multiple doses, will begin Nov 8, according to officials.

The drive aims to reach about 10 million children, according to Dr Hamid Jafari, head of polio eradication for the WHO’s eastern Mediterranean region.

More than 3.3 million children had previously “remained inaccessible to vaccination campaigns,” according to the statement announcing the drive.

Children who are 6 months to 59 months old will also be given vitamin A supplements during the campaign, officials said.

Word of the agreement comes as the Taliban have been showing some limited flexibility in dealings with the outside world as the government seeks desperately needed aid amid an ailing economy and increasing food scarcity.

“We welcome WHO’s effort to launch its polio vaccination campaign in Afghanistan and are ready to help and coordinate,” Bilal Karimi, a Taliban spokesman, said. “Women can also participate in this campaign and work closely with health workers to provide vaccinations to our people.”

In addition to this polio vaccination programme, set to start in early November, “all parties have agreed on the need to immediately start measles and Covid-19 vaccination campaigns,” the statement from the UN and WHO said.

A second polio vaccination programme in Afghanistan will be synchronized with one in neighboring Pakistan that is scheduled to begin in December, it said. Half a dozen more vaccination programs are scheduled to begin next year, according to Dr Jafari.

In announcing the vaccination programme, health officials said the Taliban “expressed their commitment” to allow women to be frontline workers in the drive and “for providing security and assuring the safety of all health workers across the country.”

Dr Jafari said that tens of thousands of women were expected to work in the vaccination effort, as vaccinators, supervisors and managers.

The announcement comes after several attacks on polio vaccinators this year, stifling efforts to inoculate children against the disease.

In June, at least five members of two polio vaccination teams were killed in one day during separate attacks in Jalalabad in eastern Afghanistan.

In the same city, three women working for the government’s polio vaccine campaign were shot dead in late March.

Agencies