Nationwide polio vaccination campaign starts in Afghanistan

A child is given a polio vaccination in Kabul, Afghanistan (Rahmat Gul/AP)

The Taliban-run Afghan public health ministry has announced the start of a four-day nationwide polio vaccination campaign aimed at inoculating children under the age of five.

Over the past three years, before taking control of Afghanistan, the Taliban had barred UN-organised teams from carrying out door-to-door vaccinations in parts of the country under their control, apparently due to suspicions that they could be spies for the previous government or the West.