27 May 2014 - Seeking to free Warrap of polio, the state Ministry of Health, World Health Organization (WHO) and UNICEF today launched a four-day immunization campaign in its six countries and the Abyei region.

Health authorities said about 531,074 children up to five years old as well as 4,200 children from various internally displaced persons camps within Warrap were being targeted.

Speaking at Kuajok Hospital, Warrap Minister of Health Nyanawut Mayen Kuol urged mothers to allow their children to be immunized. She said more cases related to polio cases had been reported globally, which could be a concern for South Sudan.

“In 2013, 34 cases were reported globally, but at present the situation is completely different,” Ms. Mayen said. “Cases which are reported (this year) are 82 … which must be worrying to everybody.”

UNICEF representative Jacob Awan Mathiang said his agency would achieve its objective by freeing South Sudan of polio.

“Our generation that we lost during the war and the generation that we are losing now will be compensated when we have a … generation in the future which is not paralyzed,” Mr. Mathiang said.

The campaign is the second round of national polio immunizations, carried out under the theme “House to House”. The first round was conducted together with measles in April.