UN Agencies and Allies to Kick-off Polio Eradication Drive
| 22/03/2012 – UNICEF, the WHO and its health partners in 20 African countries will work to immunize more than 100 million children over four consecutive days, starting tomorrow. |
International health workers and policy-makers will launch a new campaign to avert the spread of polio across West and Central Africa. About 111 million children in 20 countries are being targeted for polio immunization by government ministries, the World Health Organization (WHO) and United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF).
Poliomyelitis (polio) is a very infectious viral disease that overwhelmingly affects children under the age of five. Transmitted via contaminated water and food, polio attacks the nervous system once inside the body. In a small number of cases, the disease can cause total paralysis and death in just a matter of hours.
The campaign will begin operations tomorrow, when tens of thousands of volunteers will go door-to-door to vaccinate children against polio over the course of four days.
Should eradicating polio be unsuccessful, the virus could paralyze millions of children in the coming years, said David Gressly, UNICEF Regional Director for West and Central Africa. The best way to eliminate polio is ensure that at least 90 per cent of all children are immunized against it.
Countries participating in the campaign include Chad, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Central African Republic, Niger, Cameroon, Benin, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, Cote d’Ivoire, The Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Liberia, Mali, Mauritania, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone and Togo.
Though Mozambique (southeastern Africa) is not participating, The GAVI Alliance (formerly Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization) recently reported via Reuters AlertNet that polio immunization rates in the country are disturbingly low. This could increase the potential for an outbreak if the virus were reintroduced.
Only a quarter of the countries targeted in the current campaign have been able to maintain a 90 per cent vaccination rate since the late 1990s.
Nigeria in particular needs to make the most progress, as it is the only African country in which polio remains endemic. In fact, about half of the 111 million children targeted for vaccination live in Nigeria, Africa’s most populous country. A unique Presidential Task Force on polio has been called together to provide $60 million over the next two years to fund polio eradication initiatives.
Mr. Ambroise Tshimbalanga Kasongo is the chair of Rotary International's African PolioPlus Committee. “This year's progress in India [which is preliminarily now polio-free] has proven what is possible when we focus on the task at hand," he said in the agencies’ joint statement, adding, “Failure is not an option.”
Polio is also endemic in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Last year, about 650 cases were reported worldwide.