Polio Eradication Campaign Launched In Jonglei

This article was last updated on May 25, 2022

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According to the United Nation International Children Fund (UNICEF) Communication Officer, Jacob Mathiang, the campaign is being conducted by the Jonglei State Ministry of Health in collaboration with UNICEF and the World Health Organization (WHO).

Mathiang said volunteer vaccinators will move from households to households vaccinating children under the age of 5 years. 

He said there are some more challenges facing their vaccinators in all parts of Jonglei.

“Our volunteers are facing a lot of difficulties in the field in term of accessibility and also in term of security,” he said.

He said most part of Jonglei State is swampy and for them to travel from those area is always challenge to reach some of the areas due to security issues but through the help of county authorities they are able to access and administer the vaccines.

He said that the campaign in Jonglei is part of a countrywide Polio eradication campaign which starts Tuesday and will run up to Friday 7 December. 
 
Mathiang said this is the fourth round after similar rounds were held in February, March and November this year.

This round targets three million children countrywide.

“We need to know also where the volunteers reach so that we know that they have done their job because our objective is to get the child vaccinated,” he said. 
 
A Bor Civil Hospital, authority says the hospital has run out of medicine and supplies.

Acting State Director General in the Ministry of Health, Dr. Kuai Deng Kuai, told Gurtong that the hospital has not had medicine to treat several illnesses for the past three months. 

The primary health care in Jonglei State has 144 centres.

The state Education Minister Stephen Paar Kuol advised the parents with children below 5 years to lets their children get vaccinated at their homes.

He said he needs to tell his people through the media to disseminate the message to so that they can be able to stay with their children at home for vaccination intended for children below five years.

“We are doing this to protect our children against polio disease and not only about the polio alone but to adapt the new culture of health care were we informing everybody about the vaccination,” he said.