6 July 2006 - The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) is preparing for its second polio vaccination campaign since an importation of wild poliovirus was confirmed on 10 May. Starting 14 July, the three-day campaign will cover Bas Congo and Kinshasa and the southern parts of the provinces of Bandundu, Kasai Oriental, Kasai Occidental and Katanga. Some 14,000 teams of vaccinators will administer 7 million doses of oral polio vaccine to 5.8 million children under the age of five to protect them against further spread of the crippling disease.

Two more cases of polio have been confirmed in the DRC since confirmation of the outbreak in early May, a second  from Bas Congo and a third from Kasai Occidental. Health authorities treat even apparently low numbers of cases as an emergency because one case of polio indicates that at least 200 people are infected. The first confirmed case was a  two and a half year-old girl  in Bas Congo province who developed paralysis;  laboratory testing confirmed poliovirus as the cause on 10 May. Genetic sequencing has determined that the virus is closely related to a strain of Indian origin that caused an outbreak in Angola in 2005; it also confirms that the cases in Bas Congo and in Kasai Occidental are caused by separate importations of poliovirus into DRC.

The country's size and political situation make any outbreak there a matter of regional concern. The DRC's previous cases of polio were in 2000, and it has maintained strong vigilance in the face of various difficulties, withstanding even the massive outbreak that affected west and central Africa from 2004 to 2005, including the bordering Central African Republic. Although routine immunization for polio (over 70% nationwide) is strong, and disease surveillance is adequate, many parts of the country remain inaccessible. Trade and commerce links - both by river and air travel - present an opportunity for the virus to spread to other parts of the country, and there is significant risk of spread into other countries. 

Importations such as this re-affirm the urgency of interrupting poliovirus transmission worldwide and of maintaining high population immunity in the meantime. The DRC government's swift response to the importation -  following standard guidelines for countries with importations of polio issued by the Advisory Committee on Polio Eradication - is expected to prevent further spread. The Vice-President launched the first emergency response campaign on 13 June. While data is being finalized on the coverage achieved during that first campaign, initial post-campaign evaluation indicates that coverage was adequate. 

The priorities in the next weeks are to implement the next campaigns, to carry out active search for possible cases and to maintain highly-sensitive surveillance for the disease. At least two more immunization campaigns are planned, for 18 August and 22 September, for which external financing is required.