UN urges parties to respect anti-polio days

A group of United Nations agencies has condemned the recent detention of some 14 health workers in southern Sudan, where a civil war is raging, as a major setback to their global efforts to eradicate polio. It urged all parties to the conflict to allow unhindered access and observe "days of tranquillity" during the next round of national immunisation days, scheduled for 13-26 April. The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) and the World Health Organisation (WHO) warned, in a statement released in New York on Monday, that the global polio eradication target of 2005 would not be reached unless access and safe passage for health workers could be guaranteed in countries in conflict, such as Sudan. The 14 health workers had been conducting vaccination activities when they were arrested in Nyingol, near Malakal town, Upper Nile, on 15 March by members of the rebel Sudan People's Liberation Army, according to the statement. The SPLA, military wing of the Sudan People's Liberation Movement, has been fighting the Sudanese government in Khartoum since 1983. Three of the vaccinators were assaulted, including a female worker who was badly beaten, while all their vaccination equipment and personal effects were looted, the UN agencies stated. "Threats to the security of humanitarian personnel are always of grave concern and the detention of health workers cannot be condoned under any circumstances," Kenzo Oshima, UN Emergency Relief Coordinator and head of OCHA, said in the statement. The March 2002 nationwide vaccination campaign in Sudan would have been the first time since the polio eradication effort started in the country 1994 that polio vaccines would have reached all children throughout the country within a period of several days, had it not been for the detention of the health workers "Most regrettably, the detention of the health workers and an impasse among the warring parties over access to the Nuba Mountains and the Blue Nile State disrupted the campaign - unnecessarily exposing children to the risk of infection with the polio virus, which can cause paralysis and even death," according to the UN agencies. Martin Dawes, UNICEF spokesman for southern Sudan, told IRIN on Tuesday that Sudan was critical to the global polio eradication campaign. Citing a 1997 WHO report, he said the most recent outbreak had been in the government-held town of Nyala, Southern Kordofan, in 1993. That outbreak, attributed to low immunisation cover among children, spread to areas of western Sudan, with about 250 reported cases. "There is an ever-present danger of an outbreak," Dawes told IRIN. "We need these days of tranquillity for health workers to go about their work. It is important for all of us." The Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI) - spearheaded by the WHO, Rotary International, the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention and UNICEF - aims at wiping the polio virus and disease from the face of the earth by 2005, through large-scale vaccination of children aged below five years. Since 1988, the initiative has reduced the global incidence of the disease by over 99 percent - from an estimated 350,000 cases to fewer than 1,000 in 2001. Today, wild polio virus is circulating in only 10 countries, a drastic decline from 125 countries in 1988, according to Monday's joint UN statement. "As one of just 10 remaining polio-endemic countries, Sudan is absolutely critical to the Global Polio Eradication Initiative," said WHO Director-General Gro Harlem Brundtland. "The world can only be certified polio-free once transmission of wild polio virus ends everywhere. For that to happen, all children under five must be vaccinated." Sudan is one of the countries, where conflict has remained a major hindrance to the polio eradication campaign, according to Dawes. "Polio eradication is being held up in Africa because of fighting," he said. Carol Bellamy, UNICEF's executive director, said the goal of eradicating polio was in sight but could only be achieved with "unhindered access to all children". She urged all parties to the Sudanese conflict to respect commitments they had given to support polio eradication. Access to all children everywhere - including the most remote areas of Sudan - and the security of health workers would be especially critical to the next round of national immunisation days, scheduled for mid-April, according to Monday's UN statement.