Polio vaccination campaign aims to reach 14m children

With a polio outbreak spreading rapidly in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), UN Daily News reports that the Executive Director of UNICEF will visit the country to help support a mass campaign to vaccinate over 14 million children.

The DRC has witnessed a sharp resurgence of polio as conditions in the country continue to complicate vaccination efforts, potentially undermining global eradication of the crippling disease. From January 2010 to February 2011, there were 112 new cases. In 2009, only three cases were detected.

“UNICEF will do everything we can to support the DRC’s collective effort to defeat this evil virus once and for all,” said UNICEF’s Executive Director, Anthony Lake. “Eradicating polio in DRC and everywhere requires an absolute commitment by government and its partners to vaccinate every child.”

In response to the outbreak, preparations are underway to go door to door to vaccinate more than 14 million children by the end of May. The aim is to make sure that no child is left unprotected.

 

UK Govt. and Gates Foundation announce new commitment to eradicating Polio

Speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Bill Gates announced that the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has committed an additional $102 million to support efforts to eradicate Polio.  British Prime Minister David Cameron also announced that the United Kingdom would double its current contribution to polio eradication (to a total of 60 million pounds).

Mr Cameron called on other donors to back the Global Polio Eradication Initiative as he announced the UK’s commitment that will see an extra 45 million children fully vaccinated against the disease.

In 20 years, polio cases have been reduced by 99 percent and the disease is now close to being only the second in history – after smallpox – to be wiped out. In 2010, India and Nigeria – historically the toughest challenges to eradication – cut cases by 95 percent each. However, today polio still exists in more than a dozen countries, crippling and killing children.

“We have come so far in eradicating polio. We are so close to delivering a polio-free world for all our children. Let’s finish the job. And let’s eradicate polio once-and-for-all,” said Prime Minister David Cameron.

 

 

US and Russia partner to eradicate polio around the world

Today, the U.S. government and the government of the Russian Federation, through the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), and the Ministry of Health and Social Development of the Russian Federation (MOHSD), signed a Protocol of Intent on Cooperation for the Global Eradication of Polio.

Progress in global public health threatened by funding shortfalls

Last year was full of “big events” for public health, including the launch of a new meningitis vaccine and an aggressive new strategy for polio eradication, the head of the United Nations health agency said today, while stressing the need to ensure that progress is maintained in the year ahead.  (UN Daily News)

Margaret Chan, Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO), noted in her address to the agency’s Executive Board in Geneva that a major issue is how much the financial crisis and economic downturn will affect public health, both internationally and within individual countries.

“Will progress stall? Will powerful innovations, like the meningitis vaccine, like the vaccines for preventing diarrhoeal disease and pneumonia, like the new diagnostic test for tuberculosis, fall short of reaching their potential?”

The Director-General noted that many organizations in global health, like the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization (GAVI Alliance), and WHO itself, now face serious funding shortfalls.

In her wide-ranging speech, Ms. Chan also noted that experience showed that health initiatives survive long enough to deliver sustainable results only when they are nationally owned and aligned with national priorities and capacities.

“Self-reliance is realized only when programmes are delivered in ways that strengthen existing systems, infrastructures and capacities. Doing so helps countries reduce their dependence on aid and gives donors an exit strategy.”

 

Economic benefits of polio eradication estimated at US$40-50 billion

A new study, published in the journal Vaccine, estimates that the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI) could provide net benefits of at least US$40-50 billion if transmission of wild polioviruses is interrupted within the next five years.

The study considers investments made since the GPEI was formed in 1988 and those anticipated through 2035. Over this time period, the GPEI’s efforts will prevent more than 8 million cases of paralytic polio in children. This translates into billions of dollars saved from reduced treatment costs and gains in productivity.

The study also reported that “add-on” GPEI efforts improve health benefits and lead to even greater economic gains. Notably, it estimates an additional $17-90 billion in benefits from life saving effects of delivering vitamin A supplements, which the GPEI has supplied alongside polio vaccines.

The global incidence of polio has been reduced by 99 percent since 1988 and type 2 wild polioviruses were eradicated in 1999. Intense efforts are underway to stop transmission of types 1 and 3 completely within the next several years, with indigenous transmission remaining only in relatively small areas in Afghanistan, India, Nigeria, and Pakistan and re-established transmission in a few countries, including Angola and the DRC.

GPEI is a public-private partnership led by national governments, spearheaded by the World Health Organization, Rotary International, the CDC, and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and supported by organizations including the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

Polio outbreak in Congo kills nearly 100

Polio has killed nearly 100 people, mainly young adults, in the Republic of Congo and paralyzed more than twice as many in the past six weeks, according to the World Health Organization (WHO) and a report from Reuters.

The crippling viral disease normally strikes children under five years of age, making the acute, fast-spreading outbreak unusual, the U.N. agency said.

“Most of the cases have involved young adults aged between 15 and 29. This illustrates that populations are at risk because they have not been exposed to a full immunization,” it said.

184 cases of acute flaccid paralysis and 85 deaths have been reported from the site of the acute poliomyelitis outbreak centred in Pointe Noire, Republic of Congo.  The mortality rate is higher than normal for the disease, which attacks the nervous system.

The virus comes from a strain from India, one of four remaining endemic countries — where the virus survives and its spread has never been interrupted — along with Afghanistan, Nigeria and Pakistan.

A first wave of mass polio vaccination campaigns, targeting 3 million people of all ages, is set to begin on Friday in Congo and parts of Angola and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

The WHO, UNICEF, Rotary International and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have been working together since 1988 to eradicate polio, which infected at least 350,000 people in 125 endemic countries each year at the time.

Polio in retreat – a feature in Scientific American

An interesting article from Scientific American on global efforts to eradicate polio, and recent indicators of significant progress in regions of India where the virus used to be prevalent.

Polio in Retreat: New Cases Nearly Eliminated Where Virus Once Flourished

New cases in key Indian states are hovering near zero—unprecedented, historic lows—suggesting that a long-time goal of eliminating the virus is within reach in parts of world where it has long been considered intractable

The world’s largest, most intractable source of polio may be on the brink of elimination. In India the states of Bihar and Uttar Pradesh have produced more polio cases this decade—nearly 5,000—than any other location worldwide that has an active immunization campaign. Nigeria saw a handful more cases than the two Indian states because it effectively ceased immunizing in 2003 for a time due to false fears of the vaccine.

Now, even at the peak of polio season, new cases in Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and indeed all of India hover near zero—unprecedented, historic lows. In the past decade the peak months of August and September have seen an average of roughly 140 people, usually children, stricken by poliomyelitis, which attacks motor neurons in the nervous system and can cause paralysis. But for the past four weeks running, Bihar and Uttar Pradesh have hung zeros on the polio scoreboard, according to reports published as recently as October 28 by the Global Polio Eradication Initiative.

Data source: AFP Surveillance Bulletin—India Report for week 41, ending 16 October 2010 (pdf)

Members of the Initiative, a public-private partnership among agencies including the World Health Organization, U.S. Centers for Disease Control, UNICEF and Rotary International, are leery of drawing attention to the trend because it could change. “[W]e are cautious,” says Sona Bari, communications officer for polio at WHO. The CDC’s Steve Wassilak adds, “I would rather celebrate after the fact than before,” although “we can be allowed to think that we are close.”

Polio was supposed to be eradicated worldwide by 2000, per a goal set by the World Health Assembly in 1988. In fact, polio cases have been reduced by 99 percent globally from about 350,000 in 1988; sustained transmission of the virus has been eliminated from all but a handful of countries.

Read the rest of the article online at www.scientificamerican.com.

Polio outbreak in Angola – UN launches mass immunization campaign

A polio immunization campaign targeting 5.6 million children was launched in Angola yesterday as the United Nations World Health Organization (WHO) warned that the southern African country was quickly becoming the greatest threat to continent-wide eradication efforts. (UN News)

Only three African countries have recorded cases of the highly infectious and potentially lethal disease in the past four months – Nigeria, Angola, and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), with the latter infected from across the Angolan boarder, WHO spokesman Rod Curtis told reporters in Geneva.  Areas in Angola that have previously been polio-free have been re-infected this year from an expanding outbreak, he said.

Over the next three days and again at the end of the month, WHO, the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and Rotary International will be supporting tens of thousands of volunteers, health workers, parents, communities and traditional leaders as they go from house to house and village to village to ensure that every child under the age of 5 is reached with an oral polio vaccine.

WHO believes the outbreak can be rapidly stopped, even by the end of the year, if these gaps are closed.

Outside Africa, polio has been eradicated in most parts of the world, but remains endemic in Afghanistan, Pakistan and India. Last month WHO said great strides had been made towards eliminating polio in Nigeria, which has seen a 99 per cent drop in cases this year compared to 2009.

Global polio eradication initiative launches 2010-2012 strategy

In Geneva this Friday, a broad range of stakeholders will formally launch the new Strategic Plan 2010-2012 for eradicating wild poliovirus (WHO newsroom).

Last month, the World Health Assembly welcomed the new plan while expressing deep concern about the US$ 1.3 billion funding shortfall (out of a budget of US$ 2.6 billion) over the next three years. This financing shortfall is a serious risk to the eradication of polio – activities are already being cut back or postponed due to a lack of funds.

Polio eradication sits at a critical juncture
Across Africa, 10 of the 15 previously polio-free countries re-infected in 2009 have successfully stopped their outbreaks¹. Key endemic countries are witnessing historic gains against the disease. Nowhere is progress more evident than Nigeria, where case numbers have plummeted by more than 99% – from 312 cases at this time last year, to three in 2010. In India, for the first time ever, the remaining endemic states of Bihar and Uttar Pradesh have not reported any wild poliovirus type 1 cases concurrently for more than six months.

The new plan introduces district- and area-specific strategies to target the ever-shrinking remaining reservoirs of poliovirus, exploits the game-changing bivalent oral polio vaccine to increase the impact of immunizations, and tackles health system weaknesses.

The risk of not stopping polio in endemic countries was made clear when a large type-1 outbreak originally from India spread to Tajikistan early in 2010 where, to date, it has paralysed 239 children. Tajikistan had been polio-free since 1997.

Global Polio Eradication Initiative
The Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI) is spearheaded by national governments, WHO, Rotary International, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and UNICEF. Since 1988 (the year the GPEI was launched), the incidence of polio has been reduced by more than 99%. In 1988, more than 350 000 children were paralyzed each year in more than 125 endemic countries. In 2009, 1 595 children were paralyzed in 24 countries. Only four countries remain endemic: Afghanistan, India, Nigeria, and Pakistan.

1.2 million Afghan children protected from polio

The United Nations World Health Organization (WHO) has vaccinated more than 1.2 million children in Afghanistan against polio after an outbreak of the sometimes deadly disease in neighbouring Tajikistan, where it was thought to have been eradicated nearly one decade ago.  (UN Daily News)

Polio, sometimes called poliomyelitis, is a highly infectious and sometimes fatal disease, and is often marked by acute flaccid paralysis among sufferers. It has been eradicated from much of the world, but experience shows that the virus can travel far relatively rapidly.

Most of the 200 cases reported as of 5 June were near Tajikistan’s border with Afghanistan, the target of WHO’s vaccination drive earlier this month.  More than 1 million children were vaccinated in Tajikistan against polio last month.

Afghanistan’s Badakhshan region has been polio-free for some 10 years, making it all the more important to contain possible spill-over effects from outbreaks in neighbouring areas.