The World Health Organization has reported that 23 cases of polio have been confirmed in Afghanistan so far this year, according to its latest weekly update.
Since the beginning of 2023, a total of 71 cases of polio have been documented across Afghanistan and Pakistan, with Afghanistan accounting for 23 of those cases and Pakistan 48.
In October, WHO reported three new polio cases in Afghanistan’s Kandahar and Helmand provinces. Two cases were detected in the Maywand and Ghorak districts of Kandahar, while the third was identified in Helmand’s Nahr-e-Saraj district.
The health agency noted an additional environmental polio case in Helmand Province, recorded in the second week of November. This environmental sample, which signals the presence of polio in the community, was found in Lashkar Gah, the provincial capital of Helmand. With this new detection, Afghanistan has recorded 85 environmental polio cases in 2023.
Afghanistan and Pakistan remain the only countries globally with confirmed polio cases.
Earlier this year, sources told Amu that the Taliban had suspended door-to-door polio vaccination campaigns in Helmand and Kandahar, hindering efforts to fully eliminate the disease from Afghanistan.
