Volatile Kandahar – the polio capital

Eliminated in the relatively secure northern and central provinces, polio persists in the insecure southern and eastern provinces, according to the Ministry of Public Health (MoPH) and the UN World Health Organization (WHO). The southern province of Kandahar is the worst affected: Of the 25 polio cases confirmed in Afghanistan in 2010, 11 were in Kandahar. In 2009, 38 cases were reported – 21 in Kandahar; and in 2008, 31 cases, with 12 in Kandahar, according to WHO. In the past three years polio cases have been reported in fewer than 12 of the country’s 34 provinces – and there has been only one confirmed polio case reported in Afghanistan so far this year – a two-year-old boy, now permanently disabled – in Damaan District, Kandahar Province. Canada, which has stationed over 2,000 soldiers in the province since 2006 and is committed...