No Polio In South Sudan, Says Health Ministry

26 July 2010 - (Juba) – The GOSS ministry of health says no polio cases have been reported in southern Sudan since June 2009 as a result of a comprehensive immunization program.

The Director of the Immunization Program in the ministry, Anthony Laku, spoke to SRS in Juba on Friday.

[Anthony Laku]: “Currently, we are without polio cases in southern Sudan. In 2008 and 2009, there was an outbreak of polio in southern Sudan. We conducted several national immunization days’ campaigns against polio. We managed to control the outbreak. Since June 2009 up to today, we don’t have any polio cases although we have AP surveillance or acute placid surveillance is going on, we did not detect any case.”

The GOSS Ministry of Health and the United Nations Children’s Fund - UNICEF - are jointly working on ways and means to enhance immunization in the future to kick out polio in southern Sudan.