Dr. Faten has spent almost 25 years fighting the poliovirus. ©Faten Kamel

Dr Faten Kamel is on a flying visit to the WHO Eastern Mediterranean Regional Hub, stopping for meetings and to deliver a lecture on the relationship between polio and patients with primary immunodeficiencies. Then she’s off again – to Pakistan to take part in a polio programme management review.

Dr. Faten has travelled to every country in the Eastern Mediterranean Region, and many more besides. Alongside working as a Senior Global Expert for the programme, she is a wife, a mother, grandmother, and an informal mentor to women in public health.

Growing up in Alexandria, Egypt, Dr. Faten was exposed to the life-altering effects of polio on the people around her and was inspired by the work of her father, a surgeon and a Rotarian.

“My father was my role model, he had great passion for helping others and was also a Rotary Club president in 1989. His project for that year was on polio eradication.”

“Polio was prevalent in Egypt in those days. A number of people around me were affected. I was touched by their suffering in a place which was not highly equipped for people with special needs at that time.”

Checking the immunization status of children in Upper Egypt. ©Faten Kamel

Making rapid gains against polio

After graduating from her Medical Degree and Doctorate in Public Health, and lecturing for several years at Alexandria University, Dr. Faten moved into a role for WHO. She found her niche working in the immunization team. “Immunization is the most cost effective public health tool – it can prevent severe and deadly diseases with just two drops or a simple injection – I strongly believe in preventive medicine,” she explains.

“I became the Eastern Mediterranean Regional Medical Officer for polio eradication in 1998. At that time many countries were still endemic.”

The 1990s and early 2000s were years of rapid gains against the virus. However to fully eradicate polio, it was becoming clear that the programme would have to be more ingenious than any disease elimination or eradication project that had come before.

Dr. Faten took a leading role. She explains, “Strategies for immunization and disease surveillance were established, and these methods evolved over time. We pushed the boundaries to make the programme more effective – shifting to house to house vaccination, detailed microplanning and mapping, retrieval of missed children and independent monitoring.”

“We started as a small team – covering different aspects of work and supporting all the countries. My team started the regular analysis and publishing of data in “Poliofax”, we supported the shift to case based and active surveillance and gradually added different supplementary activities including environmental surveillance.”

“I was blessed to have the support of my parents, my husband and my son. As a married woman I think it is very important to have the support of your family. I also had wonderful supervisors who believed in my capabilities and gave me opportunities. I am similarly impressed with many of the young women in the programme today.”

Determined to monitor immunization activities in hard to reach areas in Pakistan. ©Faten Kamel

Overcoming outbreaks

Sometimes the biggest challenges for Dr. Faten and her team came out of the blue, such as when the programme faced huge polio outbreaks in areas that had become free of the virus.

“We didn’t expect polio to cause large outbreaks, but we were faced with them. To overcome the situation we started to work together as partners on effective response strategies within and across regions. The virus does not stop at borders and we had to coordinate multi-country activities.”

“In the polio eradication programme we cannot be satisfied with 80% or 90% coverage – we need to reach each and every child no matter where they are, even in the hard to reach and insecure places. So there was always a lot of innovation and adaptive strategies, we were thinking how can we bridge this, and reach these children.”

“That’s how we came up with access analysis and negotiation, days of tranquility, using windows of opportunities and short interval campaigns, community involvement and collaboration with NGOs, intensifying work at exit points, thinking out of the box all the time.”

Visiting homes in a tribal area of Pakistan close to the border with Afghanistan. All children in this photo lived in the same household, underlining the importance of going door to door to ensure that every child is reached. ©Faten Kamel

Tracking polio down unexpected paths

Dr. Faten was determined to possess firsthand information on polio cases, no matter where they occurred. Sometimes, this led her down unexpected paths – such as when she travelled 21 hours through the Sudanese bush to track down a polio case in a remote village.

“I’ll never forget when a wild poliovirus type 3 (WPV3) case appeared in a very faraway place in Sudan after years without WPV3. I said, “I have to see it myself”. This mission was one of my most challenging fieldtrips.”

“We faced many difficulties, it was the rainy season, the car slipped on its side on our way and we arrived after midnight.”

“I thought the virus must have been hiding in this place for years. But I found the disease surveillance to be very good. Then by investigating, we found there was a wedding, and relatives were coming from another province, so I could nearly point my finger to where the virus came from. The virus was detected in that area and we managed to curtail its spread.

Addressing the media to declare the end of the Middle East polio outbreak on World Polio Day, 24 October 2015 in Lebanon. ©Faten Kamel

A career spent getting ahead of the virus

In 2016, Dr. Faten set up the Rapid Response Unit in Pakistan – a dedicated ‘A team’ that can jump into an at-risk area to mitigate virus spread. Today, she is working with medical professionals to ensure that individuals with primary immunodeficiencies get tested for poliovirus, as some of them are at risk of prolonged virus shedding.

What keeps her awake at night?

“I care about where we are not reaching. Polio eradication is beyond health – it needs all the sectors to come together especially in a big country. In the last strongholds of the virus we have population movement across the border, some areas that are difficult to reach, and there are some misconceptions.”

“If someone comes and says this area is inaccessible, this is not an answer for me. I ask: What should we do to reach? I like to make use of the ideas and experience that come from local people. The virus strongholds are in certain areas, so let us work closely with the people in these areas, empower them, and allow them to change the situation.”

Dr Faten is proud to be part of the polio eradication programme and looks forward to the day when polio eradication is achieved, so she can spend more time with her family in Australia.

“As a grandmother, I am especially determined to finish the job. I want my grandkids to grow up in a world free of polio. This will be my contribution to their futures.”

Related resources

In January:

  • No cases of wild poliovirus were reported
  • 9.9 million children were vaccinated.
  • Permanent transit teams vaccinated 1,743,299 children and cross-border teams vaccinated 117, 232 children

Related resources

Masooda manages a team of 56 community outreach workers. ©UNICEF/Afghanistan
Masooda manages a team of 56 community outreach workers. ©UNICEF/Afghanistan

Amidst the extreme heat of the Afghan summer, Masooda, a polio outreach worker, moves with confidence between houses. Her aim is to talk to families that refuse to vaccinate their children against polio. Her energy is endless and she tops that with a smile and a warm way of talking with women and men.

Masooda has an impressive range of skills. She works as a skilled midwife with passion for her community. She is also a District Communications Officer for the polio programme, leading a team of 56 community outreach workers in her neighbourhood.

“I want to help my people – polio is a danger to every child, and we should eradicate it”, says Masooda.

Masooda recalls her early days with the programme, “I faced tough refusal families who denied their children the polio vaccine. A woman refused to vaccinate her younger sister. After one year, the sister died of measles as she hadn’t been vaccinated against it. Now, the same woman has a baby girl and she frequently takes her baby to the health centre for vaccination. Sadly, she learnt her lesson the hard way”.

Masooda leaves her house at 6:30am during immunization campaigns, just as the sun rises. She checks the outreach plans with her teams before they disperse around the town. Through the day, she makes supervisory visits to her teams and obtains updates on vaccine uptake issues. When she receives reports on absent and missing children, she converses with families in order to encourage them to vaccinate their children.

To eradicate polio from Afghanistan, Masooda thinks there is a lot more to do. She says, “I will continue to work hard, for every child to be able to walk, attend school and grow healthy. It is the whole community cause for generations to come.”

Related resources

In November:

  • Two cases of wild poliovirus were reported
  • 5.6 million children were vaccinated.
  • Permanent transit teams vaccinated 1,723,859 children and cross-border teams vaccinated 163 775 children

Related resources

In October:

  • Four cases of wild poliovirus were reported
  • 5.41 million children were vaccinated.
  • Permanent transit teams vaccinated 1 832 016 children and cross-border teams vaccinated 162 872 children

Related resources

In September:

  • One case of wild poliovirus was reported
  • 6.1 million children were vaccinated.
  • Permanent transit teams vaccinated 1 428 845 children and cross-border teams vaccinated 164 692 children

Related resources

Dr Rebecca Martin, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, delivering the welcome address at the event ”To succeed by 2023—Reaching Every Last Child for a Polio-free World” to celebrate the launch of the Polio Endgame Strategy 2019-2023. ©WHO.
Dr Rebecca Martin, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, delivering the welcome address at the event ”To succeed by 2023—Reaching Every Last Child for a Polio-free World” to celebrate the launch of the Polio Endgame Strategy 2019-2023. ©WHO.

The 72nd World Health Assembly, the governing body of the World Health Organization held by in Geneva, Switzerland is the biggest congregation of public health actors. Taking advantage of the critical mass of global leaders, the Global Polio Eradication Initiative hosted an event for polio eradicators, partners and stakeholders on 21 May 2019.

The event, To Succeed by 2023—Reaching Every Last Child, celebrated the GPEI’s new Polio Endgame Strategy 2019-2023. The five-year plan spells out the tactics and tools to wipe out the poliovirus from its last remaining reservoirs, including innovative strategies to vaccinate hard-to-reach children and expanded partnerships with the Expanded Programme on Immunization (EPI) community and health emergencies.

The informal event brought together a cross-section of stakeholders – partners, health actors, non-health actors, supporters, donors, Ministers of Health of endemic countries, WHO Regional Director for the Eastern Mediterranean, and Polio Oversight Board members – alluding to strengthened and systematic collaboration in areas of management, research and financing activities in the last mile.

Dr Zafar Mirza, Pakistan’s Minister of State,Ministry of National Health Services, Regulations, and Coordination, seen with Seth Berkley, CEO of Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, at the GPEI informal event during the 72nd World Health Assembly. ©WHO
Dr Zafar Mirza, Pakistan’s Minister of State,Ministry of National Health Services, Regulations, and Coordination, seen with Seth Berkley, CEO of Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, at the GPEI informal event during the 72nd World Health Assembly. ©WHO

Dr Zafar Mirza, Pakistan’s Minister of State,Ministry  of National Health Services, Regulations and Coordination, took the stage and gave insight into country-level polio eradication efforts and the need for coordinated action with Afghanistan: “20 years ago, 30 000 children were paralyzed by polio in Pakistan. This year, 15 cases have been reported. While we have done a lot, it is clearly not enough. We are resolute in this conviction. We, together with Afghanistan, must make sure we eradicate polio for the sake of our children. Our science is complete, only our efforts are lacking. Along with the polio programme, the donors and the Afghan government, we will get to the finish line.”

Echoing similar sentiments, Dr Ferozuddin Feroz, Minister of Public Health of Afghanistan, said, “I would like to start by expressing thanks to all the partners for their support. As you know, Afghanistan has a very challenging context due to inaccessibility, refusals, gaps in campaign quality, low routine immunization coverage, and extensive cross-border movement. But, Afghanistan has made progress—five out of seven regions continue to maintain immunization activities. We view polio as a neutral issue and have developed a robust National Emergency Action Plan 2019. We appreciate the Polio Endgame Strategy 2019-2023. We believe coordination with Pakistan will help us deliver a polio-free world. We look forward to your continued technical and financial support to achieve the goal of polio eradication.”

Dr Ferozuddin Feroz, Minister of Public Health, Afghanistan, talking about the remaining challenges for polio eradication and the need for continued partner support in the last mile. ©WHO
Dr Ferozuddin Feroz, Minister of Public Health, Afghanistan, talking about the remaining challenges for polio eradication and the need for continued partner support in the last mile. ©WHO

Recognizing the long-standing commitment of the United Arab Emirates, a video was played showing the on-ground efforts of the Emirates Polio Campaign, working with communities and families in Pakistan in collaboration with the Global Polio Eradication Initiative and partners, and the Government of Pakistan. Thanks to the Emirates Polio Campaign, 71 million Pakistani children have been reached with 410 million doses of polio vaccine.

Dr Abdullahi Garba, Director for Planning, Research and Statistics, National Primary Healthcare Development Agency spoke on behalf of Professor Isaac F Adewole, Federal Minister of Health of Nigeria. Dr Garba harked back to the past as the GPEI plans for the future: “Nigeria started actively working to eradicate polio in 1988, at a time when we used to have up to a thousand cases every year. With all our innovation and efforts, I am pleased to inform you today that no wild polio case has been detected for the past 33 months. This feat was achieved through continuous efforts between the government, GPEI and partners, having diligent incidence reporting, reaching inaccessible children, and improving the quality of the polio surveillance immunization activities through strong oversight mechanisms in Nigeria. I know I also speak on behalf of all countries across Africa – we will achieve success.”

Representing Nigeria, Dr Abdullahi Garba, Director for Planning, Research and Statistics, National Primary Healthcare Development Agency, talked about the challenges, innovations and tools used to bring Nigeria to the brink of polio eradication. ©WHO
Representing Nigeria, Dr Abdullahi Garba, Director for Planning, Research and Statistics, National Primary Healthcare Development Agency, talked about the challenges, innovations and tools used to bring Nigeria to the brink of polio eradication. ©WHO

Rounding off the evening, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the World Health Organization Director-General and Chair of the GPEI Polio Oversight Board, took the stage to recount his first visit of the year to the polio endemic countries of Afghanistan and Pakistan, the progress made over decades, and the need to re-commit to the cause of ending polio. “Together with Regional Director Ahmed Al-Mandhari and Chris Elias of the Gates Foundation, we travelled to Pakistan and Afghanistan. We saw first-hand the commitments by both public and civil society leaders, which gave us a lot of confidence. The other thing that gave us confidence was seeing our brave health workers trudging through deep snow. And of course, our partners:  Rotary, United Arab Emirates, CDC, UNICEF, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and Gavi. The last 30 years have brought us to the threshold of being polio-free…(which) lay out the roadmap that is the Polio Endgame Strategy 2019-2023. The Ministers of Afghanistan and Pakistan have also assured us that they will continue to work together in their shared corridor to finish polio once and for all.”

Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the World Health Organization Director-General and Chair of the GPEI Polio Oversight Board, remains confident in continued political commitment in the endemic countries, the tireless support of partners, donors, and the Polio Endgame Strategy 2019-2023 to deliver a polio-free world. ©WHO

In 1988, the World Health Assembly passed a resolution to globally eradicate poliovirus, in what was meant to be “an appropriate gift…from the twentieth to the twenty-first century.”

As the GPEI plans for the future and its final push to ‘finish the job,’ it is clear that political and financial efforts need to ramp up in this increasingly steep last mile. As he concluded, Dr Tedros thanked committed partners like United Arab Emirates: “Global progress to end polio would not be possible without partners like the UAE. I would like to thank His Highness Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi, and the UAE – a long-time supporter of the polio programme – for agreeing to host the GPEI pledging event this November at the Reaching the Last Mile Forum, a gathering of leaders from across the global health space held once every two years…let us join together to end polio.”

Related resources

In April:

  •  4 cases of wild poliovirus were reported in April 2019.
  • 9.2 million children under the age of five were targeted during the March National Immunization Days (NIDs)—conducted between 1-5 April 2019.
  • 578 Permanent Transit Teams (PTTs) were operational across Afghanistan in April 2019.

Related resources

The Friendship Gate (R) and Torkham (L) are two of the Pakistan-Afghanistan border crossings where all-age polio vaccinations are carried out. ©WHO/Pakistan.
The Friendship Gate (R) and Torkham (L) are two of the Pakistan-Afghanistan border crossings where all-age polio vaccinations are carried out. ©WHO/Pakistan.

On both sides of the historical 2640-kilometre-long border between Pakistan and Afghanistan, communities maintain close familial ties with each other. The constant year-round cross border movement makes for easy wild poliovirus transmission in the common epidemiological block.

All ages and all genders: polio vaccines are for all travellers crossing the Pakistan-Afghanistan border. ©WHO/Pakistan
All ages and all genders: polio vaccines are for all travellers crossing the Pakistan-Afghanistan border. ©WHO/Pakistan

As a new tactic in their joint efforts to defeat poliovirus circulation, Afghanistan and Pakistan have introduced all-age polio vaccination for travellers crossing the international borders in efforts to increase general population immunity against polio and to help stop the cross-border transmission of poliovirus. The official inauguration of the all-age vaccination effort took place on 25 March 2019 at the border crossings in Friendship Gate (Chaman-Spin Boldak) in the south, and in Torkham in the north.

Although polio mainly affects children under the age of five, it can also paralyze older children and adults, especially in settings where most people are not well-immunized. Adults may play a role in poliovirus transmission, so ensuring that they have sufficient immunity is critical to simultaneously eliminating poliovirus from the highest risk areas on both sides of the Pakistan-Afghanistan border.

This is particularly important at the two main border crossing points – Friendship Gate and Torkham – given the extensive amount of daily movement. It is estimated that the Friendship Gate border alone receives a daily foot traffic of 30 000. Travellers include women and men of all ages, from children to the elderly.

Pakistan and Afghanistan first increased the age for polio vaccination at the border in January 2016, from children under five years to those up to 10 years old. The decision was in line with the recommendations of the Emergency Committee under the International Health Regulations (IHR) which declared the global spread of polio a “public health emergency of international concern”,

The all-age vaccination against polio at the border crossings serves a practical implementation of another recommendation of the IHR Committee: that Pakistan and Afghanistan should “further intensify cross­border efforts by significantly improving coordination at the national, regional and local levels to substantially increase vaccination coverage of travelers crossing the border and of high risk cross­border populations.”

All ages and all genders: polio vaccines are for all travellers crossing the Pakistan-Afghanistan border. ©WHO/Pakistan
All ages and all genders: polio vaccines are for all travellers crossing the Pakistan-Afghanistan border. ©WHO/Pakistan

As part of the newly introduced all-age vaccination, all people above 10 years of age who are given OPV at the border are issued a special card as proof of vaccination. The card remains valid for one year and exempts regular crossers from receiving the vaccination again. Children under 10 years of age will be vaccinated each time they cross the border.

Before all-age vaccination began at Friendship Gate and Torkham, public officials held extensive communication outreach both sides of the border to publicize the expansion of vaccination activities from children under 10 to all ages. Radio messages were played in regional languages, and community engagement sessions sensitized people who regularly travel across the border. Banners and posters were displayed at prominent locations.

Deputy Commissioner for Khyber District in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, Mr Mehmood Aslam Wazir, inaugurated the launch of All-Age Vaccination by vaccinating elderly persons at the Torkham border crossing. “Vaccination builds immunity and it is necessary for children to be vaccinated in every anti-polio campaign. The polio virus is in circulation and could be a threat to any child. The elders in our community could be carrier of the virus and take along the virus from one place to another, therefore, vaccination of every traveller, of all ages and genders, crossing Pakistan-Afghanistan border will be the key determinant to interrupt polio virus transmission in the region, and the world.”

The introduction of the all-age vaccination at border crossings is the latest example of cross-border cooperation between Pakistan and Afghanistan. The two countries continue to work closely together to ensure synchronization of strategies, tools and activities on both sides of the border.

Related Resources

In February:

  • 1 case of wild poliovirus was reported in February 2019.
  • 5.8 million children under the age of five were targeted during the February Supplementary Immunization Activities (SNIDs).
  • 546 Permanent Transit Teams (PTTs) were operational across Afghanistan in February 2019.

Related Resources

Polio eradication efforts are as much rooted in the social realities as they are in the technological tools. The success of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative comes down to one simple action: the knock on the door, when the child’s caregiver greets the health worker.

Why do caregivers let vaccinators enter their homes? The caregiver’s decision to vaccinate is influenced by many moving parts: social, cultural, economic, and religious. Women health workers and leaders are able to transcend many of these boundaries as they are not only health workers; they are members of that community – someone’s neighbour, friend, aunt, cousin or grandmother.

Polio-endemic, at-risk, and outbreak countries regularly engage women as health officials in immunization activities, constituting about 68% of the frontline workforce. In Nigeria, 99% of frontline workers are women, followed by 56% in Pakistan and 34% in Afghanistan. But their strength in numbers is not the only reason why women are crucial to polio eradication efforts, they are, in fact, behavioural change agents.

Here’s a look at some of the resilient and inspiring women working to eradicate polio in their communities – in their own words:


Related resources

Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of the World Health Organization and Chair of the Polio Oversight Board, administering polio drops to a child during a four-day joint visit to Pakistan and Afghanistan. © WHO/Pakistan
Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of the World Health Organization and Chair of the Polio Oversight Board, administering polio drops to a child during a four-day joint visit to Pakistan and Afghanistan. © WHO/Pakistan

For Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of WHO, the start to the new year was marked with a four-day visit to Afghanistan and Pakistan from 5-8 January. The visit came at the heels of his new role as the Chair of the Polio Oversight Board (POB) on 1 January, a committee which oversees and guides the Global Polio Eradication Initiative, signalling the Board’s utmost commitment towards eradication of polio for good.

Accompanied by WHO Regional Director for the Eastern Mediterranean Dr Ahmed Al-Mandhari, Dr Tedros’ well-knit, compact visit covered a lot of bases from field visits to high-level meetings with heads of state from both the countries, giving the POB an opportunity to see that while polio may still be in endemic in Afghanistan and Pakistan, but the process to achieve the goal of ending polio is not far from realization.

“We must all give our best on this last mile to eradicate polio once and for all. My wish for 2019 is for zero polio transmission. You have WHO’s full support to help reach every child and stop this virus for good,” Dr Tedros said.

During his first stop in Afghanistan on 5-6 January, Dr Tedros met with His Excellency President Dr Ashraf Ghani, His Excellency Chief Executive Dr Abdullah Abdullah, the Council of Ministers, representatives of key partners and nongovernmental organizations working in the field of public health. He also visited to the WHO-supported Trauma Care Hospital in Kabul.

In Pakistan on 7-8 January, Dr Tedros met with the Prime Mister Imran Khan, Federal Minister for National Health Regulations & Coordination Mr Aamer, Mehmood Kiani, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Federal Minister for Human Rights Dr Shireen Mazari.

Dr Tedros accompanied the President of Pakistan, Arif Alvi, to the launch of the first Pakistan Nursing and Midwifery Summit and the Nursing Now campaign. He also visited a basic health centre in Shah Allah Ditta where WHO signed an agreement with the Government of Pakistan to develop a model health care system for universal health coverage in Islamabad.

In the last mile of the polio eradication journey, Dr Tedros’ visit serves as a reminder that now more than ever we need to have social, political and global will to make polio the second human disease in history to be wiped from earth.

Read more about the visit here.

Related Resources

In November

  • 2 new cases of wild poliovirus were reported in November 2018.
  • 5.3 million children under the age of five were targeted for the November Supplementary Immunization Activities (SNIDs).
  • 402 Permanent Transit Teams (PTTs) were operational across Afghanistan in November 2018.

Related Resources

A frontline worker is vaccinating a child against polio.                                                                                                                                                 WHO Afghanistan/R Akbar

In November, polio vaccination teams across Afghanistan targeted 5.3 million children under the age of five in high-risk provinces. The vaccination campaign came on the heels of several newly reported cases.  Afghanistan has 19 documented cases of wild poliovirus in 2018, as of November. Confirmation of even one polio case anywhere signals remaining vaccination coverage gaps which must be filled to achieve eradication.

The targeted vaccination campaign took place from 5-9 November, and with support across the board from healthcare workers, communities, religious clerics, and the government. “The Ministry of Public Health and health partners are committed to ending this disease,” said Dr. Ferozuddin Feroz, Minister of Public Health.

Afghanistan is one of the three remaining endemic countries in the world along with Pakistan and Nigeria. The endemic countries are intensifying their efforts by making sure they fully implement the strategies in their national polio emergency action plans.

Read more about the details of Afghanistan’s vaccination campaign here.

Related Resources

A child in Afghanistan shows off their pinky after receiving the polio vaccine. Photo credit: ©UNICEF Afghanistan/Hibbert

Front-line health workers and volunteers represent the backbone of the global polio eradication effort. As they work tirelessly to reach and vaccinate every last child against polio – often in remote, hard-to-reach or even dangerous areas – they are not only protecting children from the poliovirus, but also paving the way for other health programmes to reach the world’s most vulnerable children.

The Every Last Child project is a collection of over 30 stories and profiles from India, Pakistan and Afghanistan about the collective efforts of front-line health workers, governments and global health partners to protect children from the poliovirus in some of the world’s most challenging environments. These multimedia pieces illustrate the complexity and scale of polio eradication efforts in each of these key countries through in-depth narratives, compelling profiles and interactive visuals.

To end polio, the global polio programme must reach every last child and take bold steps to take the world across the finish line once and for all. Visit the Every Last Child project page to learn more about the history of these remarkable efforts, as well as stories of heroic front-line workers.

 

In September

  • 3 new wild poliovirus (WPV1) cases were reported in September 2018.
  • In the September Sub-National Immunization Days, 5.6 million children under the age of five were targeted.
  • 484 permanent transit points (PTPs) were operational across Afghanistan during September 2018.

For full update please click on pdf below.