Progress toward poliomyelitis eradication during armed conflict–Somalia and southern Sudan, January 1998-June 1999

In 1988, the Regional Committee of the World Health Organization (WHO) for the Eastern Mediterranean Region adopted a resolution to eliminate poliomyelitis from the region by 2000. Somalia and parts of southern Sudan have persons living in areas where there is ongoing armed conflict and poor infrastructure (e.g., health-care facilities, schools, roads, and power plants). Under these conditions, conducting National Immunization Days (NIDs) and acute flaccid paralysis (AFP) surveillance is difficult. This report summarizes NIDs in Somalia during 1997 and 1998 and in southern Sudan during 1998 and 1999 and establishment of AFP surveillance in northern Somalia and southern Sudan.