Anti-polio workers attacked

massive anti-polio vaccination campaign were beaten up and arrested by rebel soldiers in northwest Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Representatives of the World Health Organisation (WHO) said the incident took place on Monday in the Bikombi area of Ikela in Equateur province. The five were later released, the sources told IRIN on Thursday. "Our team on the ground is trying to contact each of them for further clarifications," they said. Troops of the rebel Rassemblement congolais pour la democratie (RCD-Goma) have been active in the area. The Ikela health zone is split by a former military frontline where the majority of the town's estimated 50,000 people have been displaced into a forest on the eastern side of the line. The population is cut off from even irregular medical supplies, and it is unclear whether there are still government soldiers and/or other armed groups in the town itself. The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has reportedly started supplying a health centre near the displaced, and an ICRC exploration team in the area reported no major epidemics or visible deprivation of food, but "zero medication" and no routine vaccination for at least three years. Access to the region is possible from Kisangani via Opala (some 260 km away) only by boat, motorbike and bicycle, with supplies being carried by bicycle porters. Vaccinating teams were also reported to have been blocked on Sunday at the DRC's border with Angola by Angolan rebels "for unknown reasons", WHO sources told IRIN. Administrative and health officials have been requested by the DRC Ministry of Health to take appropriate actions in an effort to prevent such problems from occurring during future vaccination rounds. UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan on Friday urged safe passage for health workers in the polio immunisation campaign, which was launched in Kinshasa on Thursday. In a statement, Annan said that with polio now present in less than 20 countries worldwide, it was essential that all children be reached with polio vaccine "today, if they are to deliver the promise of a polio-free world tomorrow". Health workers in Gabon, Republic of Congo (ROC), Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and Angola are trying to vaccinate an estimated 16 million children under five in a massive campaign to eradicate polio throughout the region. By simultaneously targeting the population at risk in one of the last reservoirs of polio, the campaigners hope to cut the viral transmission chain and finally eradicate the crippling disease. The DRC presents the greatest logistical challenge, as some settlements may not be reached within the period that the vaccines can be conserved in portable containers. During the past few years, the UN system has sought to announce the final eradication of polio worldwide, but a few cases were still reported in the DRC last year. Final eradication cannot be declared until no cases have been reported for five years.