23 July 2023 – At the earliest signs of the ongoing conflict in Sudan, in the middle of April, WHO’s country team sprang into action. After all, conflict and infectious diseases are known to be comrades.

One of the first tasks they took on was to find ways to detect the possible spread of an outbreak of variant poliovirus that was confirmed in December 2022 after a paralysed child living near the border with Chad tested positive for the virus. Immediately after the start of the conflict, they worked to maintain the essential function of surveillance for acute flaccid paralysis (AFP) – the most common symptom of polio – in children.