UN agencies plan to immunise 2.26 million children in Darfur

UN agencies and the Sudanese health ministry have launched a plan to vaccinate 2.26 million children against measles in western Sudan's troubled Darfur region, rushing to complete the exercise before the onset of the long rains that render most roads in the region impassable each year. "We have the potential to save up to 50,000 lives by preventing a measles outbreak here," Carol Bellamy, the executive director of the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF), is quoted as saying in a statement issued on Monday. "Almost a quarter of the children are already showing signs of malnourishment, making the threat of the measles virus even greater," she added. The month-long campaign is being led by the Sudanese health ministry, the UN World Health Organisation (WHO) and UNICEF, in coordination with several national and international organisations. Darfur has been ravaged for more than a year by fighting between government forces and allied militias on the one hand and two armed rebel groups on the other. The conflict has displaced up to two million people. UNICEF and WHO said in their joint statement that thousands of vehicles had been drafted in to transport heat-sensitive vaccines and mobile teams along dangerous roads throughout the region's three states. "In addition to saving the lives of children, we hope that - by facilitating access to populations affected by the crisis and allowing for an assessment of their health situation - the campaign will provide a means to better respond to people's urgent health needs," the statement quoted WHO Director-General Lee Jong-wook as saying. Measles is caused by a highly infectious virus, and is a leading cause of child mortality globally, according to WHO. The threat to life is greater when children are malnourished, and even more so during population displacement. Vaccinators are also using the opportunity to provide life-saving vitamin A supplements and to immunise at least 90 percent of children under five against poliomyelitis. Meanwhile, the death toll from an Ebola outbreak in southern Sudan has risen to seven, with 28 cases in total reported since last month, WHO said in statement issued on Monday. Local authorities in Yambio County, in the Western Equatoria State, had confirmed that as of Sunday there had been seven deaths. Isolation wards had been set up, while a public awareness campaign about the disease - how it was transmitted and how to prevent it - had been launched in southern Sudan. Additional equipment to collect and safely transport samples had also been sent to the affected area, said the statement. The Ebola virus was first identified in Sudan and what is now the Democratic Republic of the Congo in 1976. It is a contagious disease and causes death in many cases.