The Health Department of Leer County in Unity State started a mobile polio vaccination campaign on Wednesday following the recent discovery of the disease in parts of the country.

In late February, the World Health Organization (WHO) said three variant poliovirus cases have been confirmed in three of the ten states of South Sudan: Western Equatoria, Central Equatoria, and Upper Nile. The cases were reported in children under five years of age and unlike previous poliovirus outbreaks, the affected children have not received polio vaccinations.

To halt the outbreak and prevent further spread, the Ministry of Health, with support from WHO, UNICEF, and other partners, established an emergency response task force to coordinate the response, while increasing surveillance efforts.

Michael Latjor, the Acting Director of Health in Leer County, told Radio Tamazuj Thursday that the four-day vaccination campaign will target the county’s 16 payams and urged parents to allow their children to get vaccinated.

“My message to parents in hard-to-reach areas is to take children from birth to five years to vaccination centers because this will help them to get vaccines that will prevent common diseases,” he advised. “I am asking parents not to prevent their children from getting vaccinated because some parents have refused to have their children vaccinated due to disinformation about the vaccines with some believing that the vaccine exposes children to diseases which is not true.”

An estimated 24,996 children are targeted to be vaccinated across the county.

On his part, Yien Magok, a community member in Leer town, accepted the call to have children vaccinated.

“A healthy child has completed all vaccination doses. Since the roads are inaccessible, I am asking my community members to take their children for vaccination during the four-day campaign to prevent diseases,” he stated. “It will give us peace of mind when children are vaccinated. It is the task of parents to allow children to benefit from this immunization campaign that targets our area now.”

The ongoing mobile vaccination campaign is an initiative of the WHO and UNICEF and is being implemented by the county health department. It targets 60 children per day in hard-to-reach areas of the county.