¡¡¡¡KABUL, Oct. 20 (Xinhuanet) -- A nationwide immunization campaign against polio is poised to start in Afghanistan on Tuesday, a spokesman of the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) said hereon Sunday.

¡¡¡¡The goal of the three-day campaign is to reach some 5.9 millionchildren from new-borns to five-year-olds with the cooperation among Afghan Ministry of Public Health, UNICEF and the World Health Organization (WHO), UNICEF spokesman Chulho Hyun told a news briefing.

¡¡¡¡Teams of vaccinators will go from village to village, house to house, to ensure that all children in the age bracket receive two drops of the Oral Polio Vaccine each, regardless of prior immunization status or geographical location.

¡¡¡¡In the upcoming round, children aged six months to five years will also be administered Vitamin A drops, an important micro-nutrient to prevent night blindness and help the body fight disease and infection, said Hyun.

¡¡¡¡While the influx of returning refugees and other challenges make it difficult to put a firm date for polio interruption in Afghanistan, Afghan health professionals have been making significant strides in recent years toward the globally set objective of interrupting the virus' transmission in the nation. So far this year, there have been seven reported cases compared to27 two years ago. Between 5 million and 6 million Afghan people have been vaccinated in each round since May of 2000, according toHyun.Enditem

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