KABUL, Oct. 18 (Xinhua) -- A country-wide polio vaccination drive will start on Nov. 8 in war-affected Afghanistan, the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) announced on Monday.
The World Health Organization (WHO) and UNICEF welcome the decision by the Taliban, who support the resumption of house-to-house polio vaccination across Afghanistan, the UNICEF said in a release on its website.
The campaign will be the first in over three years to reach all children in Afghanistan, including more than 3.3 million children in parts of the country who have "previously remained inaccessible to vaccination campaigns," the release said.
"A second nationwide polio vaccination campaign has also been agreed and will be synchronised with Pakistan's own polio campaign planned in December," according to the release.
The vaccination will be the first campaign since Taliban's takeover in August.
Earlier in October, the UNICEF urged the Taliban's caretaker government to resume children's vaccination amid fear of spreading polio and measles in Afghanistan. Enditem
