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Afghan gov't launches nationwide measles vaccination campaign

Xinhua, July 25, 2015 Adjust font size:

Afghan government on Saturday launched a nationwide measles vaccination campaign that would cover 5.5 million children, the Public Health Ministry said in a statement.

The program with a cost of 4.5 million U.S. dollars would be implemented by more than 27,000 health staff and volunteers, the statement said.

"So far there are no statistics to show the number of children who have died from measles in Afghanistan. But we hope this campaign will increase the children's immunity against the disease, " Ahmad Jan Naeem, deputy to the ministry of public health said after launching the program.

In the statement, the ministry called on parents and elders to help immunize all children between nine months old and five years old against the virus during the six-day campaign. Endi