Taliban not blocking polio campaign

KABUL, Afghanistan, March 25 (UPI) -- Afghan officials backed claims from the Taliban that the militant regime is not inhibiting efforts to vaccinate Afghans against polio, the United Nations said.

"We are not against polio immunization, and we have not impeded vaccinators in areas under our control," Taliban spokesman Qari Yousuf Ahmadi told the U.N. humanitarian news agency, IRIN. "Vaccinators must coordinate with us before they begin the process," he added.

The United Nations along with the Afghan Ministry of Public Health embarked on a immunization campaign across the country last week in an effort to deliver the polio vaccine to children younger than 5.

A spokesman for the Health Ministry, Abdullah Fahim, confirmed the statements from his Taliban counterpart.

"We have not received reports that the Taliban have blocked polio immunization (drives)," he said.

U.N. and Afghan officials said, however, around 200,000 children were unable to be immunized due in part to volatility in the southern provinces.

The World Health Organization reports most of the war-torn country has been relatively free of polio in recent years, with about 40 cases emerging in the past three years.