Taliban Minister Boasts Afghan Anti-Polio Gains While Addressing Global Health Huddle  

FILE - A health worker marks a child's finger with ink after giving polio vaccine at a campaign in Kandahar, Afghanistan, on June 28, 2022.

A senior representative of Afghanistan’s Taliban government told a Pakistan-hosted international health conference Wednesday that his country had recorded an increase in mosquito-borne malaria and dengue fever cases, but infections caused by highly contagious poliovirus declined significantly. Only 12 children around the world were paralyzed by wild poliovirus in 2023, all of them in Afghanistan and Pakistan — with six reported in each. The two countries, sharing a nearly 2,600-kilometer border, have not detected a polio infection this year. "Polio is still a great challenge for both Afghanistan and Pakistan," Qalandar Ebad, the Taliban health minister, said in his English-language speech at the first global health security summit in Islamabad. Delegates from 70 countries worldwide, including those from the United States and the United Nations, are attending the summit in the Pakistani capital. "We are trying our best to eradicate the polio virus from the country and fortunately we have good accomplishments in this area," Ebad said.