Kabul , Afghanistan ( CNN ) -- Dozens of schoolgirls and teachers were sickened Wednesday by poison gas in Afghanistan , medical and government officials said . The latest incident , this one at a high school , is the ninth such case involving the poisoning of schoolgirls , said Asif Nang , spokesman for the nation 's education ministry . Dr. Kabir Amiri said 59 students and 14 teachers were brought to the hospital , and were faring better . `` We do n't have good equipment to verify the kind of gas that they were poisoned with , but we have taken their blood tests to send to Turkmenistan for verifying the type of gas '' that was used , Amiri said . Many Afghan girls were not allowed to attend school during the Taliban 's rule from 1996 to 2001 . Girls ' schools began reopening after the Islamist regime was toppled . The United Nations children 's agency , UNICEF , estimates that 2 million Afghan girls attend school these days . But female educational facilities , students and teachers have come under vicious attack as the insurgency has strengthened and spread from Taliban strongholds in the southern provinces of Kandahar and Helmand . A report compiled last year by the humanitarian agency CARE documented 670 education-related attacks in 2008 , including murder and arson . Much of the violence in what CARE called an `` alarming trend '' occurred at girls ' schools . CNN 's Matiullah Mati contributed to this report .
Under Taliban rule , girls were banned from schools . Comment: The girls are recovering at a hospital , a doctor says .