UN officials gather to discuss strategy to combat polio epidemic in Sudan
Sudan, Health, 12/25/2004

United Nations officials held an emergency meeting Thursday in Khartoum to discuss to how to contain a polio epidemic in Sudan, where reports of 79 new cases have led to fears that the sometimes fatal disease could soon spread to other countries in the region.

Officials from the World Health Organization (WHO) and the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) told the meeting of the UN's country team that if the outbreak is not stopped rapidly, then restrictions may have to be introduced on the movement of people in the infected countries.

WHO and UNICEF will also conduct a polio vaccination campaign across the whole of the country next month, the UN Advance Mission in Sudan (UNAMIS) reported.

Sudan had been polio-free for several years but the disease has spread across at least 10 nations in Africa this year after vaccinations in some states of northern Nigeria were suspended in mid-2003 amid concerns from local religious leaders about the safety of the oral vaccine. Those concerns were later proven to be baseless and the vaccinations have resumed.

Meanwhile, in an interview with UN Radio, UNICEF's Special Representative for the Darfur Crisis Keith McKenzie said children are continuing to bear the brunt of the region's conflict that has displaced more than 1.65 million people and led to the deaths of thousands of villagers since it began almost two years ago.

Speaking from N'Djamena, Chad, Mr. McKenzie said his agency estimated that children form about 45 per cent of the 2.5 million Sudanese needing help as a result of the conflict between Government forces, allied militias and rebel groups. The UN has already labelled Darfur the scene of the world's worst humanitarian crisis.

"These children have been witness to terrible events. They have seen family members being killed, they have seen their homes being looted and burned down, they have had to flee," he said.

Mr. McKenzie said UNICEF was trying to introduce some form of education to Darfur and the refugee camps in neighbouring Chad "because it provides these children with some form of normalcy. It brings children into schools and is an entry point for all our other child-centred activities."

About 49,000 of the estimated 63,000 Sudanese school-age children living in refugee camps in eastern Chad attend school already, and Mr. McKenzie said UNICEF plans to build more classrooms to cater for the remaining children.

Meantime, The Special Representative of the United Nations' Secretary-General for Sudan, Jan Pronk, expressed his regret that Save the Children UK "had to take the difficult decision to terminate its operations in Darfur." saying The Special Representative reiterates his strong condemnation of acts of violence targeting humanitarian workers.

Mike Aaronson, Director-General of Save the Children, said "It is with deep regret that Save the Children UK announces that we are unable to continue our humanitarian operations in Darfur due to the tragic deaths of four staff members in two separate incidents over the past two months, as well as a series of extremely serious additional security incidents.

"We are devastated that we are unable to continue to offer health care, nutritional support, child protection and education to the approximately 250,000 children and family members served by our current programmes in North and South Darfur. However, we just cannot continue to expose our staff to the unacceptable risks they face as they go about their humanitarian duties in Darfur," he added.

Previous Stories:
  Morocco grants Sudan medical aid to fight meningitis   (2/25/2003)
  National vaccination campaign in Sudan   (11/10/2001)
  Malaria in Sudan   (9/5/2001)

Please add a link on your webiste pointing to ArabicNews.com and bookmark ArabicNews.com & subscribe to our daily email news bulletin.

Search