Afghan Youth Hit by Whooping Cough

U.N. and Afghan medics were airlifted to a remote province in central Afghanistan to vaccinate children against whooping cough after 25 youngsters died of the infectious disease, officials said Monday.

The U.S. military said the 10 medics were flown into Daikondi province Sunday on a coalition helicopter with a small quick-reaction force to provide security. They took antibiotics for 2,000 people and vaccinations for 2,500 people.

Mohammed Sarwar Danish, Afghanistan’s justice minister and a former governor of Daikondi, said 25 children had died of whooping cough in Ghizab district.

Danish said in Kabul that the road to the district in Afghanistan’s remote central highlands had been blocked by snow, and reports of the deaths had reached the capital only Wednesday.