South Sudan News

Akol Kuol Magiir is one of the community champion informants in Kuac South Payam, Gogrial West County of Warrap State. Mr Magiir since his involvement as a community informant for Auto-Visual AFP Detection and Reporting (AVADAR) has sent in a countless number of alerts of suspected Acute Flaccid Paralysis (AFP) cases out of which four AFP cases were found to be true AFP cases. When asked, what motivated him to work so enthusiastically, his answer was “I am doing it for the love of my community, and I don’t want to see any child left behind in the fight against polio”.  

“The majority of our population in the cities and rural areas depend on untreated water points with potentially contaminated water. This puts them at risk of waterborne disease outbreaks like cholera”, said Dr John Rumunu, the Director-General of Preventive Health Services, Ministry of Health.

Juba, 10 February 2022 – The government of South Sudan today inaugurated its Public Health Emergency Operations Center designed to respond promptly and effectively to public health risks and emergencies of international concern.

The center is part of a $4.2 million African Development Bank grant-financed COVID-19 response project that included procuring an oxygen plant, vehicles, a wide range of essential medicines, lifesaving biomedical equipment and personal protective equipment. The World Health Organization (WHO) implemented the project.

Kai Koang, at the crack of dawn on a Tuesday morning, armed with his loud megaphone tightly held to his mouth and moving from house-to-house stormed site D of the highly populated Bentiu internally displaced persons (IDP) camp passing on good news – on the commencement of the oral cholera vaccination campaign. Kai is a well-known social mobilizer in the camp.

A few minutes later the vaccination site was awash with people ready to receive the vaccine.

Juba, 30 January 2022 - South Sudan joined the rest of the world to commemorate the first World Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTDs) Day, a day marked to boost the global fight against NTDs which have affected more than 1.5 billion people globally. Approximately one-third of these live in Africa with South Sudan being among the top countries experiencing huge burdens inflicted by this poverty induced diseases.

6 December 2021, Juba -The World Health Organization (WHO) South Sudan Country Office held a consultative meeting with the senior management of the Ministry of Health on 6 November 2021. The aim of the meeting was to align WHO workplans for 2022-2023 biennium with country priorities. 

WHO plans in two-year cycles (biennium) with the current biennial plan 2020-2021 ending on 31 December 2021. 

30 November 2021, Juba - To determine the pending priority activities, funding gaps and potential funding sources for the implementation of the National Action Plan for Health Security (NAPHS) 2020-2024, South Sudan’s Ministry of Health with support from the World Health Organization (WHO) and partners have embarked on mapping of existing and potential resources in an effort to strengthen health security.

The implementation of the NAPHS will help the country to attain the core capacity requirements under the International Health Regulation (IHR, 2005).

Given South Sudan’s increased vulnerability to disease outbreaks and other public health threats, strengthening national disease surveillance and response and systems is crucial for early detection and rapid containment of disease outbreaks to help prevent needless illnesses and deaths.

Juba, 25 November 2021 – The Ministry of Health in collaboration with the World Health Organization (WHO), has commenced a multi-stakeholder Health Sector Performance Review, to identify issues that need to be addressed to improve performance in the health sector of South Sudan. The review is based on the progress of implementation of the Health Sector Strategic Plan (HSSP) 2017 – 2022, of the current National Health Policy (2016 to 2026).

To strengthen the capacities to detect, investigate and respond to suspected Ebola Virus Disease (EVD), WHO supported the Ministry of Health to deploy a multidisciplinary team of epidemiologists, clinicians and infection prevention and control (IPC) officers, and risk communication experts to Morobo and Yei River counties of Central Equatoria State to strengthen coordination, surveillance, IPC, and risk communication activities for prevention, detection, investigation and response to a threat of cross-border spread of the EVD outbreak.