Tag Archives: Afghanistan

Polio Cases Increase Thanks Largely to Indian Outbreak

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The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported in April that cases of polio worldwide increased four-fold in 2002 due largely to an outbreak of the disease in India.

In 2001 there were only 483 confirmed cases of polio which shot up to 1,920 confirmed cases in polio after an outbreak in the Indian states of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. That was the single worst outbreak of the disease since the World Health Organization began its campaign to eradicate polio in 1988. Cases from the Indian outbreak constituted 71 percent of all polio cases in 2002.

Afghanistan, Egypt, Niger, Nigeria, Pakistan, and Somalia also reported cases of polio in 2002.

Source:

Polio cases on the increase. The BBC, April 25, 2003.

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Afghanistan and World Food Program At Odds

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Until recently the World Food Program was feeding 300,000 people in Afghanistan with subsidized bread. Then the Taliban stepped in and demanded that the WFP stop using women to collect information about the needs of other women in Kabul. The WFP refused, and had to stop selling the cheap bread after it was unable to purchase any more flour.

The WFP and the Taliban have been negotiating to try to find some way around the impasse, but neither side seems willing to budget. In a statement released by the Taliban, the ruling party said, “The dignity of Afghan women is more precious than anything else.”

Apparently that includes the more than five million Afghans who have almost no access to food at the moment and are likely to face starvation without a heightened aid effort; an aid effort which the Taliban is so far doing its best to sabotage.

Source:

Kabul facing bread shortages. The BBC, June 16, 2001.

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