KABUL, Afghanistan, June 19 (Xinhua) — The number of polio cases in Afghanistan has reached nine as a new case has been detected in Afghanistan’s Uruzgan province, the country’s Ministry of Public Health said in a statement released here Wednesday.

“Unfortunately another polio case detected in Trinkot, capital city of Uruzgan province as a two and half years old boy affected with the crippling disease,” the statement said, adding the immunity vaccine dozes have not been given to children in the restive area due to insecurity problems.

According to the statement, since the beginning of current year, a total of nine polio cases including four in Uruzgan, two in Helmand, two in Kandahar and one in Kunar provinces, where anti-government militants including Taliban group are active, have been recorded.

The ongoing insurgency and conflicts have been hindering the efforts to stamp the infectious disease out in the insurgency-battered mountainous country, the statement said.

Afghanistan and Pakistan are the only two countries in the world that the positive endemic polio cases are reported every year.