The United States has blamed the South Sudanese leaders for the continued polio transmission in the country.
The US, in a press release marking the World Polio Day on Thursday, attributed the many root causes of polio and other disease outbreaks to the inaction of the South Sudanese leaders.
“Failure to pay health worker salaries and decades-long dependence on donors to deliver basic healthcare are factors leading to continued disease outbreaks,” reads the press release.
The press release called on the South Sudan Transitional Government to respond to the needs of the people by using public revenue transparently to vaccinate children against polio and other preventable diseases.
It observed that historical outbreaks and ongoing transmission left South Sudan’s citizens vulnerable to the debilitating polio virus.
The US, through USAID, has for two decades supported the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI) in South Sudan, providing $46 million to detect and interrupt transmission through intensive community and environmental surveillance, outbreak investigation and response.
USAID also delivered polio vaccines as part of a broader preventable disease control.
The health system in South Sudan is fragile, with frequent outbreaks of measles and other vaccine-preventable diseases pointing to subnational immunization gaps. The ongoing humanitarian crisis in the country has further impacted access to healthcare.