Anti-polio campaign workers attacked

Five health care workers involved in a massive anti-polio vaccination campaign who were reported to have been arrested and beaten by rebel soldiers on 9 July in the Bikombi area of the Ikela health zone in Equateur province of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) have been released, a UN World Health Organisation (WHO) representative confirmed to IRIN on Thursday. “Our team on the ground is trying to contact each of them for further clarifications,” the WHO source said. Vaccine 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 on Thursday. 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. “I urge all leaders in these countries and all warring parties to respect the National Immunisation Days as ‘days of tranquility’ and to ensure the safe passage of health workers and volunteers in their efforts to reach all children with polio vaccine over the coming week, and again in August and September of this year,” Annan said in a statement. [See also IRIN separate report of 12 July headlined - “DRC: Anti-polio workers attacked]”