ISLAMABAD — 

A Taliban Health Ministry spokesman says Afghanistan has recorded no polio cases so far in 2024, contradicting reports of nine cases recorded by the World Health Organization.

"This year, we haven't had a positive case of poliovirus in the entire country," Sharafat Zaman, the Afghan Ministry of Public Health spokesperson, said in a video announcement ahead of a four-day polio vaccination campaign that began Monday.

However, the WHO-led Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI) has recorded nine paralytic polio cases in Afghanistan so far in 2024, including three reported this week from the southern province of Kandahar.

"The Afghan Ministry of Public Health has reported all the cases of wild poliovirus as per the IHR (International Health Regulations) protocols to WHO," Hamid Jafari, director of polio eradication for the WHO Eastern Mediterranean Region, which includes Afghanistan and neighboring Pakistan, told VOA.

Jafari told VOA that the information is available weekly in the WHO polio analysis published online. Afghanistan did not detect a polio case this year until April. It recorded six cases in 2023.