U.N.-backed polio vaccination campaign moves forward in South Sudan

"Up to 3.2 million South Sudanese children have received vaccinations against polio in a United Nations-backed campaign to ensure the new country remains free of the deadly disease, more than two years after the last case was reported," the U.N. News Centre reports. The three-phase campaign, which is being coordinated by South Sudan's health ministry and backed by UNICEF and the WHO, will continue with additional immunizations next month, according to the news service. "Polio also re-emerged in South Sudan in April 2008, but after an intensive vaccination campaign, no new cases have been reported since June 2009," the U.N. News Centre writes (11/14).