UN announces two new victories in war on polio
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The World Health Organisation (WHO) on Wednesday declared two more states—Egypt and Niger—free of endemic polio, bringing the goal of eradicating the paralysing disease worldwide a step nearer.
Egypt, where polio has been traced back 5,000 years, has had no cases for over a year, and the nine reported in Niger were all due to imports of the virus from neighbouring Nigeria.
This leaves a record low of just four countries—Nigeria, India, Pakistan and Afghanistan—where the disease, which can paralyse a child within hours, is still endemic.
“The number of countries with indigenous polio has dropped to an all-time low ... as polio eradication efforts enter a new phase,” said the WHO, which is joined in the campaign by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the United Nations’ Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and Rotary International.
The campaign was launched in 1988 when polio was present in 125 countries and 350,000 children caught it each year.
The number of new cases has since fallen to 1,856 in 2005, with Nigeria accounting for nearly half, or 749.
It was Nigeria, where the infection spread rapidly after Muslim leaders in the north prevented vaccinations in 2003, that was in part responsible for the campaign missing a target of halting transmission worldwide by the end of 2005.
FINISH LINE
Although no new official deadline has been set, the WHO’s top official on eradication, David Heymann, told journalists it could be done by mid-2007.
“The finish line is in sight,” he said.
But to get there, the campaign urgently needs a further $150 million by March to finance vaccination campaigns in the four countries, plus another eight, including Niger, where the disease has been imported from outside.
Of these, Yemen has reported the most cases, with 478 over the past 6 months, followed by Indonesia with 299 and Somalia with 154. Other states are: Ethiopia, Angola, Nepal and Chad.
In most cases, the source of the virus was Nigeria where vaccination campaigns resumed in late 2004 after being interrupted because religious elders said they spread AIDS and sterility.
In another 14 mainly African countries, where the disease had also been re-imported after previously being eradicated, new epidemics have been stopped, the WHO and its allies said in a statement.
The campaign had been aided by the development during 2005 of two new vaccines to target the two remaining strains of polio—types 1 and 3.
But final success in banishing polio, just as smallpox was eradicated three decades ago, depends on bringing the outbreaks in Nigeria under control, the campaign warned.
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