The World Health Organization (WHO) on Tuesday reported at an Emergency Committee meeting on the spread of polio that Afghanistan has recorded a 283% increase in polio cases in in the country this year. 

According to a statement issued by WHO, since the last Emergency Committee meeting, in July this year, 51 new wild polio cases were reported – 17 from Afghanistan and 34 from Pakistan – bringing the total to 62 in 2024. 

This represents a 283% increase in paralytic cases in Afghanistan and a 550% increase in Pakistan compared to all of 2023, WHO reported.

WHO stated there has been an upward trend of wild polio detection in Pakistan since mid-2023, mostly from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Sindh and Balochistan provinces. 

In Afghanistan, there has been an increase mainly in the south since late last year 2023.

The emergency meeting to address the surge in polio cases was held on November 6, 2024, and chaired by the WHO Director-General. The statement however, was only released on Tuesday, December 3.

WHO noted that both countries had implemented two nationwide vaccination campaign rounds in 2024. Afghanistan has however implemented an additional four and Pakistan an additional six sub-national vaccination rounds. 

“After very encouraging progress towards implementing house-to-house campaigns in all of Afghanistan during the first half of 2024, Afghanistan programme has recently gone back to implementing site-to-site modality campaigns. 

“The Committee was concerned about this recent development, since site-to-site campaigns are not able to reach all the children in Afghanistan especially those of younger age and girls, which may lead to a further upsurge of WPV1 (wild polio) with geographical spread in Afghanistan and beyond,” the statement read. 

WHO stated that in addition to seasonal movement patterns within and between the two endemic countries, the continued return of undocumented migrants from Pakistan to Afghanistan was compounding the challenges. 

“The scale of the displacement increases the risk of cross-border poliovirus spread as well as spread within both the countries. 

“This risk is being managed and mitigated in both countries through vaccination at border crossing points and the updating of micro-plans in the districts of origin and return. The programme continues to closely coordinate with IOM and UNHCR,” the statement read.

The organization emphasized the need for more comprehensive vaccination efforts to prevent further spread of the disease and for the international community to step up efforts to help the two countries eliminate the virus.

A research team, including Afghan doctor Ahmad Fuad Jibran, has won Germany’s prestigious Academic Medicine Award.

Last week, the German Association of Medical Faculties awarded its annual medical prize to a team from Göttingen University for their groundbreaking research on a “Heart Adhesive.”

This innovative “Heart Adhesive” is a globally unique approach that uses artificial heart tissue and stem cells to repair damaged heart tissue and regenerate heart muscles.

Jibran, an Afghan national, was among the 14 distinguished physicians honored for their contributions to this revolutionary medical advancement.

This achievement follows another recent milestone for Afghan professionals: Norweja Ahmadi, a young Afghan woman, secured a position with the UK General Medical Council.

The Islamic Emirate has appealed to the World Health Organization to equip and strengthen Afghanistan’s health sector and to support Afghanistan’s pharmaceutical production sector. 

Dr. Hanan Balkhy, the World Health Organization's director for the Eastern Mediterranean Regional Office, met in Kabul this week for talks with Amir Khan Muttaqi, the IEA’s foreign minister. 

During the meeting, Muttaqi asked the World Health Organization to assist Afghanistan and to help it achieve self-sufficiency in the pharmaceutical production sector. 

Balkhy meanwhile said that he was trying to garner support for Afghanistan from leading health experts around the world. 

Christopher Elias, head of global development for the Bill Gates Foundation, also attended this meeting and said his organization was trying to take effective measures to eliminate the polio virus in Afghanistan. 

Polio cases increase

Elias’ comment comes after the WHO stated that the forced repatriation of Afghan nationals from Pakistan was a “major setback” for polio eradication efforts and that it contributed to the regional resurgence of the disease.

Pakistan and Afghanistan are the only two polio-endemic nations in the world and so far this year, the two countries have reported 49 and 23 cases respectively; up from only six cases each in 2023.

The latest case in Pakistan was confirmed last week in the southwestern province of Balochistan, which sits on the Afghan border and accounts for half the cases reported in 2024.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees has said that Pakistan's crackdown on undocumented foreign nationals has resulted in more than 730,000 Afghan migrants returning to Afghanistan since August 2023.