United Nations agencies and South Sudan’s health ministry will start a joint vaccination exercise on Monday to protect some 144,033 people against cholera disease in Renk, a county bordering the Blue Nile state in Sudan reported The East African.
The World Health Organization, MedAir, and UNICEF said the first round of the vaccination campaign will begin from November 18-23. The second vaccination round will be held from December 9 to 13.
“The oral cholera vaccination provides protection to the vulnerable populations during the period when access to safe water, sanitation, and hygiene are inadequate in cholera hotspots,” Olushayo Olu, WHO Representative to South Sudan said in a statement.
Renk was one of the worst affected countries during the longest and largest cholera outbreak in South Sudan in 2016-17.
The WHO declared a cholera outbreak in Sudan with a total of 278 cases including eight deaths reported as of Oct. 12 in Blue Nile and Sennar bordering Ethiopia and South Sudan respectively. The international health body said that considering the proximity and number of returnees from Sudan to Renk town, the risk of cholera importation to Renk is high.
In collaboration with Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, a total of 280,033 doses of vaccines have been secured to prevent the risk of a cholera outbreak in high-risk areas of the country.
“For the vaccine to be most effective people need two doses administered two to four weeks apart,” said WHO.
The UN health agency said it has developed a system to anticipate/forecast the risk of cholera epidemics for effective preparedness. The cholera outbreak forecasting tool will enable timely prepositioning of supplies, training of health care workers, vaccination of at-risk populations, and launching of risk communication campaigns.
Notably, South Sudan has adapted an integrated multisectoral targeted approach considering the risk of infectious outbreaks like cholera. This includes patient care; case surveillance; community engagement and risk communication.
