Annan pushes for polio-campaign truce

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan yesterday (Tuesday) welcomed the assurances provided by the DRC government and the RCD rebels that they would stop fighting to allow an urgently-needed polio immunisation campaign to be carried out in the country. UN spokesman Fred Eckhard said in New York that Annan extended his full support to the WHO/UNICEF initiative. In a joint letter to the Secretary-General, the heads of the two agencies described the DRC campaign as the “single highest priority for global polio eradication”. In order to immunise some 10 million children under the age of five years throughout the country, a respite of fighting or a series of “days of tranquility” will need to be negotiated, Eckhard said. Kabila has publicly committed to support polio eradication, while RCD leader Ernest Wamba dia Wamba declared his support for days of tranquility during a meeting last month with UN Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict Olara Otunnu. UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Sergio Vieira de Mello has been designated to coordinate support for the initiative, Eckhard said. The DRC ministry of health is tentatively planning to conduct three vaccination rounds between July and September. A national immunisation campaign scheduled to start in August 1998 was cancelled due to the outbreak of the war. A vaccination campaign was subsequently organised by the government in December, but it only covered certain areas. The DRC and Sierra Leone are the only countries that have not yet conducted full National Immunisation Days. The WHO-led campaign to eradicate polio from the world by the year 2000 started in 1988.