Sudan kicks off anti-polio campaign Sunday

KHARTOUM, Sudan, Feb 27, 2005 (PANA) — Sudan kicks off the second round
of the latest anti-polio campaign cross Africa’s largest
country on Sunday, coinciding with campaigns underway in
neighbouring African countries to eradicate the resurgent
disease.

A Sudanese Red Crescent employee vaccinates a boy against polio. (AFP).

Expanded Immunisation Programme Director Al-Tayeb Ahmed Al
Sayed told a joint news conference with WHO and UNICEF
officials here that “Angola Camp” in Jebel Aulia Province,
120 km south Khartoum, would be the first step in the
polio eradication campaign.

Some 105 cases have been reported in 17 states of the
country.

Al-Sayed attributed the re-emergence of the polio virus in
Sudan to the running conflict in the country’s western
Darfur region and to increasing numbers of immigrants and
refugees crossing the border.