3 February 2014, Juba -- The World Health Organization (WHO) conducted emergency vaccination in camps in Bor, capital of Jonglei State in South Sudan following reports of death of children due to suspected measles cases, and the inaccessibility of the area in the past 3 weeks.

WHO deployed a technical team to Bor Protection of Civilians (IDP) camp resulting in vaccination of 2,559 children against measles, 2,817 against polio and 1,935 being given Vitamin A supplementation.

“Through the early warning surveillance system set up at the IDP camps, WHO received information of suspected measles cases and death due to suspected measles in Bor PoC IDP camp”, said Dr Abdi Aden Mohamed, the WHO Representative in South Sudan.  He added that “WHO quickly responded by deploying a technical team to assist in investigating the suspected cases and deaths and supporting vaccination campaigns in the area”.

In addition to the Bor camp, WHO has supported disease investigation and vaccination efforts in a number of camps including UNMISS Tomping, Juba III IDP camps in Juba, Malakal PoC, Bentiu and Awerial.
The displaced communities and their leaders were mobilized along with 42 vaccinators and supervisors to carry out the campaign.  A post evaluation of the three day campaign showed a 97% coverage for polio and a 98% coverage for measles and Vitamin A.

Investigations carried out on deaths in the camps indicate that 30 of them were attributed to measles. Over the past weeks, WHO has worked with other partners like UNICEF, MSF, MEDAIR, CCM, GOAL and IMC to vaccinate a total of 83,651 children against measles. The Organization continues to carry out disease surveillance to ensure that any suspected measles case or any other suspected cases of any disease with epidemic potential are investigated promptly to contain any outbreak.