The Technical Advisory Group (TAG) on polio eradication convened in Kabul on 19 and 20 February to review Afghanistan’s modified strategy for optimizing site-to-site vaccination campaigns and the challenges in interrupting wild poliovirus (WPV1) transmission. This marked the first in-country TAG meeting in seven years, highlighting the urgency of protecting hard-won gains and addressing ongoing risks. TAG welcomed the strong commitment of the Honorable Minister of Public Health, national leadership, and the entire Afghanistan polio eradication team.
TAG endorsed the programme’s ‘Strategic Reset’ to optimize site-to-site vaccination while stressing the need for stronger leadership, community acceptance, and broad government engagement. The group highlighted the importance of bringing vaccination services closer to communities, tracking and reducing missed children, and encouraging families to access vaccination sites through better community engagement. TAG also urged the full mobilization of government institutions to provide administrative and political support, while leveraging polio assets to strengthen routine immunization in high-risk areas.
Afghanistan remains one of the last two polio-endemic countries, with WPV1 transmission persisting in the southern corridor, a key epidemiological route where population movement between Afghanistan’s southern provinces and neighboring Pakistan continues to facilitate virus spread.
