RUMBEK—Health authorities in Lakes State are targeting 367,774 children under five for polio vaccination, deploying about 2,000 trained health workers across the state’s eight counties.
Dr. Juma Santino Deng, the state’s Expanded Programme on Immunisation manager, said the campaign would use bivalent oral polio vaccine (bOPV) and novel oral polio vaccine type 2 (nOPV2). The vaccination campaign was launched on Tuesday, October 20, 2026, in Lakes’s State Capital, Rumbek.
Deng said preparations have involved the state and national ministries of health, working with health partners to train vaccinators and organise teams to reach children across the state.
“This campaign involves a lot of technical arrangements for human resource. Lakes State has managed to train a number of human resources, and this number of human resources is around 2000, and these are the people that are going to conduct efficient polio vaccination campaign in the state,” he said.
Each vaccination team is expected to reach 250 children a day, Deng said, adding that vaccinators and supervisors have been deployed across the state.
The campaign targets children aged zero to 59 months and is being conducted under the theme “Reaching Every Child—No Child Left Unvaccinated.”
Deng urged parents and caregivers to cooperate with vaccination teams and ensure their children receive the vaccines.
“I want to ask you to cooperate with the campaign team and with the vaccination team and with all the people that are involved in this program,” he said, adding that the vaccines are safe.
Caretaker Lakes State Governor Gen. Rin Tueny Mabor also urged parents to take their children for vaccination, saying immunisation was important for protecting them against preventable diseases.
“We want to raise awareness in the community that when the child is born, the child has to be taken to the hospital to receive vaccines or medicine that can prevent the child from getting diseases and to survive for the future,” Mabor said.
The governor said vaccination activities have started in Awerial County before moving to Matangai Payam in Rumbek Central County, where he launched the campaign.
Mabor thanked UNICEF and other health partners for supporting the state’s health sector.
Okot Morris, UNICEF’s representative in Rumbek, commended the government, health workers, partners, and community leaders for supporting efforts to protect children.
“Reaching every eligible child with polio vaccine is an urgent priority. I would like to commend our frontline workers and vaccinators who have been tirelessly working under difficult conditions to deliver life-saving vaccines to the communities,” Morris said.
He urged parents and caregivers to ensure all children under five receive the vaccine during the campaign, adding that it was safe, effective, and free of charge.
Rebecca Lou Muorwel, a resident of Matangai Payam, welcomed the campaign and said she hoped every eligible child in her community would be vaccinated.
South Sudan has experienced outbreaks of circulating vaccine-derived poliovirus, which can cause paralysis in children who are not adequately protected through vaccination.
In December 2023, South Sudan declared a public health emergency following the confirmation of cVDPV2 outbreak.
As of 2025, 36 confirmed cases of circulating vaccine-derived poliovirus type 2 (cVDPV2) were found in eight counties across Western Equatoria, Central Equatoria, Upper Nile, and Jonglei States, according to the World Health Organization.