South Sudanese health authorities together with the World Health Organization and UNICEF have launched a vaccination campaign targeting more than two million children. The first phase of the campaign will skip the three most severely conflict-affected states.

The campaign includes vaccinations against measles and polio, as well as Vitamin A supplementation. Measles is a highly infectious disease caused by a virus, which can cause blindness, diarrhoea, and ear infection. Polio is more rare and no case has been recorded in South Sudan since 2009.

According to a press release from the Ministry of Health, “The first phase of the immunization campaign begins today with 4,000 vaccination teams covering seven out of ten states that are most accessible.”

“The Ministry of Health is exploring how best to conduct the vaccination campaign in Upper Nile, Unity and Jonglei States, which will make up the second round of the campaign,” added the statement.

Cabinet Affairs Minister Martin Elia Lomuro on Wednesday urged SPLM/A-in- Opposition leadership to allow vaccination of children staying in areas they control.

He said the health ministry would offer immunization of children wherever they are, regardless of who controls the region.

Measles risk nationwide

Insecurity and poor infrastructure have prevented complete vaccination of the population. Minister of Health Dr Riek Gai Kok said that only a third of children in South Sudan have completed their routine immunization schedule this year.

Speaking at the launch of the campaign at Al Sabah Children’s Hospital in Juba yesterday, he explained, “Our low routine immunization rate makes controlling measles in South Sudan a major challenge. Over the last two years, we have had outbreaks in all ten states. Last year alone, some 600 measles cases were recorded.”

He urged parents to take their children to the nearest health facility or vaccination post during the campaign in order to protect their children the deadly diseases polio and measles.

State level

The health minister in Aweil announced the start of the measles campaign in his state next week, pointing out that some cases of the disease were recorded in Northern Bahr el Ghazal last year.

State Minister of Health Tong Deng Anei spoke to Radio Tamazuj on Wednesday, announcing preparations for the launch of measles and polio vaccination across the state of Northern Bhar el Ghazal.

“The overall health situation in the state is not bad. There was some problem of measles last year,” he said, referring to two proven measles cases in Aweil South County.

“Our teams are preparing to carry out serious vaccination against measles and polio cases because we have found cases of measles from one of the counties and it was proved (by testing)," he said.

MSF photo