Health authorities in Western Bahr el Ghazal State’s Jur River County on Tuesday launched a four-day polio immunization campaign targeting children aged 5 days and above.
Speaking during the launch of the exercise in Kuajina Payam, Jur River County Commissioner James Ernest Makuei urged parents to bring their children for vaccination.
“I am going to start dropping the first vaccine drops into the mouth of a child and this will be the first polio vaccine drop in Jur River County. Let all children receive the immunization and let all the children take all the dozes,” he said. “The organizations are standing with us but parents should also help them and the government so that these children get vaccinated and be free from polio.”
“If the vaccine is brought and you do not bring your children, this will be a big loss and will lead organizations to stop doing their good work,” Commissioner Makuei added.
He lambasted the people of Kuajina for not seeking professional medical services from the health center whenever they were sick.
“We a have hospital and people do not come here yet there are drugs and if these drugs expire, this will be a great loss so you have to visit the hospital for treatment” he added.
For his part, James Ambrose, the director general of the state health ministry, said the vaccines arrived in the state on time.
“There is an outbreak of type two polio in some areas like in Central and Eastern Equatoria where there are two cases, and for polio, even one case is considered an outbreak,” he explained. “The Government of South Sudan and partners have declared that there should be two campaigns, the first between 27 February and 1 March and the second campaign will start on 26 March 2024 for the prevention of polio.”