Via VOA News: Polio Hits 2 South Sudan States. Excerpt:
South Sudan health officials have declared a national health emergency and launched an emergency polio vaccination campaign after three cases of the disease were reported in Northern Bahr al Ghazal and Eastern Equatoria states.
Two girls, aged two and eight, in Aweil South county, Northern Bahr el Ghazal state, and a two-year-old girl in Ikotos county, in Eastern Equatoria, were confirmed as having polio by the Kenya Medical Research Institute in Nairobi on Sept. 26.
Prior to the three cases, South Sudan had been polio-free for about four years, with an outbreak last reported in 2009.
Health ministry undersecretary Makur Matur Koryom said the girls’ health is being monitored closely.
The government has started vaccination campaigns in the regions the girls live in to try to curb the spread of the disease, and will extend the vaccination exercise to the entire country over the next three months, Koryom said.
The head of World Health Organization’s (WHO) Expanded Program on Immunization, Dr Yehia Mostafah, said WHO will work with the South Sudanese government to end polio in the country, and hailed progress made so far in running mass vaccination campaigns in South Sudan.
