UNITED NATIONS, Sept. 28 (UPI) -- The U.N. Children's fund announced two major vaccination drives Tuesday against measles in Tajikistan and polio in Afghanistan.
UNICEF said almost half the population of Tajikistan would be vaccinated against measles during the next two weeks to stop the spread of a disease which has shown an alarming resurgence in the Central Asian nation in recent years.
This week about 6,000 health workers have begun moving across the largely mountainous nation to immunize nearly 3 million children and young people against measles. The country's population is estimated at just over 6 million.
At least 6 million young children across Afghanistan were being vaccinated against polio in a three-day drive beginning Tuesday. It is part of a campaign by U.N. agencies to wipe out the virus in a country where it appears to be on the decline. Afghanistan is one of six nations that still have polio.
Some 40,000 UNICEF- and World Health Organization-trained workers were fanning out across the nation over the next three days as they work with Afghan health authorities to administer the oral vaccine to every child under the age of 5.
