Polio Paralysis - Once More The Children Suffer
Posted by Ian Simpson
on Sep 23, 2013
Source: Donald McNeil, SMH News Review 24-25 August 2013
The global effort to eradicate Polio is facing serious set backs in two continents.
The virus is surging in Somalia and the Horn of Africa, largely free of cases for several years. And a new outbreak has begun in a part of Pakistan that a warlord declared off-limits to vaccinators 14 months ago.
The African outbreak began in May with two cases, one in Mogadishu, Somalia’s capital and the other in the huge Dadaab refugee camp in Kenya where Somalis have fled to escape from the internal conflict. Now there are 121 cases in the region; last year there were only 232 cases in the world.
The new Pakistan outbreak is in North Waziristan, near the frontier with Afghanistan. Before this outbreak, Pakistan had seen only 24 cases this year, about as many as it had in the same point in 2012.
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Although only three children have contacted polio since the warlord ban on vaccination programs, even one case shows that the virus remains in the area and could spread. The Pakistan outbreak is particularly frustrating, because vaccination programs had been going steadily forward towards eradication.
Dr Elias Durry, emergency coordinator for polio eradication in Pakistan for the World Health Organisation (WHO), says the equation is simple.
Where you can immunise against polio, the virus goes away. Where you cannot immunise children, the virus gets in.
These new outbreaks may delay the recently announced $5.5 billion plan to eradicate polio by 2018.
Photo: Our regular contributions all help to End Polio Now
The global effort to eradicate Polio is facing serious set backs in two continents.
The virus is surging in Somalia and the Horn of Africa, largely free of cases for several years. And a new outbreak has begun in a part of Pakistan that a warlord declared off-limits to vaccinators 14 months ago.
The African outbreak began in May with two cases, one in Mogadishu, Somalia’s capital and the other in the huge Dadaab refugee camp in Kenya where Somalis have fled to escape from the internal conflict. Now there are 121 cases in the region; last year there were only 232 cases in the world.
The new Pakistan outbreak is in North Waziristan, near the frontier with Afghanistan. Before this outbreak, Pakistan had seen only 24 cases this year, about as many as it had in the same point in 2012.
.
Although only three children have contacted polio since the warlord ban on vaccination programs, even one case shows that the virus remains in the area and could spread. The Pakistan outbreak is particularly frustrating, because vaccination programs had been going steadily forward towards eradication.
Dr Elias Durry, emergency coordinator for polio eradication in Pakistan for the World Health Organisation (WHO), says the equation is simple.
Where you can immunise against polio, the virus goes away. Where you cannot immunise children, the virus gets in.
These new outbreaks may delay the recently announced $5.5 billion plan to eradicate polio by 2018.
Photo: Our regular contributions all help to End Polio Now