Health/Medicine
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Afghanistan launches polio vaccination targeting 9.9mn kids
Kabul, Jan 17 (IANS) The Afghan Public Health Ministry on Sunday launched a nationwide campaign to administer polio vaccines to 9.9 million children under the age of five.
The five-day drive was launched as 56 polio cases were detected in Afghanistan in 2020, reports Xinhua news agency.
The Covid-19 pandemic and ongoing insurgency and conflicts have been hindering the efforts to stamp out the infectious disease in the mountainous country as millions of children from areas inaccessible to vaccination teams might miss the ongoing vaccination drive.
Afghanistan and Pakistan are the only two remaining polio endemic countries in the world., according to the Unicef.
The ban on house-to-house campaign approach since May 2018 has impacted negatively on the polio eradication progress in Afghanistan, leading to 3.4 million children being missed in every round of a National Immunization Day (NID), it said.
The situation deteriorated further when a nationwide ban was imposedon all vaccinations in April 2019 for a period of five months, exposing nearly 10 million children to the poliovirus.
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Petrol, diesel prices steady even as crude boils
New Delhi, March 6 (IANS) Oil marketing companies have spared consumers of yet another petrol and diesel price hike even though the global oil market is on the boil with crude reaching within touching distance of year-high-level of $70 a barrel.
Petrol continues to be priced at Rs 91.17 a litre and diesel Rs 81.47 a litre in the capital on Saturday. Across the country too, the petrol and diesel price remained unchanged.
This is seventh consecutive day when pump prices of auto fuels have remains unchanged.
After a spike in global oil prices seen over last two weeks with crude price jumping close to $67 a barrel, prices had fallen to around $63 a barrel but it rose again to cross $69 a barrel mark now after after the OPEC+ decision to continue with crude production cut in April.
Petrol and diesel prices have been rising continuously since February 9. In the 14 increases since then, price have gone up by Rs 4.22 per litre for petrol while diesel rate has risen by Rs 4.34 a litre in Delhi.
The increase in the previous weeks has taken petrol to cross historic high levels of Rs 100 a litre in several cities across the country.
The petrol and diesel prices have increased 26 times in 2021 with the two auto fuels increasing by Rs 7.46 and Rs 7.60 per litre, respectively so far this year.
Oil companies executives said that petrol and diesel prices may increase further in coming days as retail prices may have to be balanced in line with global developments to prevent OMCs from making loss on sale of auto fuels.
--IANS
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