Good things are happening in the fight against polio
Malaka are I are busy preparing for our trip and we can’t wait to share more with you on Monday when Bill Gates releases his third annual letter at the “Polio Eradication and Power of Vaccines” event in New York.
This is such an exciting time because the world is on the cusp of something monumental. Only once before have we been able to eradicate a disease from the planet and now, with the momentum that is gaining, polio is close to being the second. In just this past week, we have seen major commitments from leaders around the world demonstrating their support for the eradication of polio including:
Hopefully, this is just the beginning. I think Dr. Chan, the director general of the World Health Organization, eloquently and succinctly summed up the crossroads we are at when she said “We have a window of opportunity now, with cases at an all time low. But if there is polio anywhere we are at risk of polio everywhere. Only eradication will ensure that polio does not reemerge as a global threat.”
We’ve come so far in the fight against polio; in 1988, polio was endemic in 125 countries and paralyzing an estimated 350,000 children every year. Today, the poliovirus remains endemic in only four countries and eradication is within reach. Be sure to check back on Monday as Malaka and I report on the extraordinary progress in the fight to eradicate polio and the enormous lifesaving potential of vaccines.
Photo courtesy of Shehzad Noorani/UNICEF
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January 29, 2011 at 7:30 pm
The commitment of these funds and joint political voices for the eradication of polio programme are vital at this critical stage. I came back from Northern Nigeria 4 weeks ago having worked on the STOP programme where the delivery of OPV is highly intensive and there is sustained commitment from health workers, community, traditional and religious leaders. At this stage, the campaigns need to be dynamic, this is a huge challenge due to high intensity campaigns and huge amount of hours demanded. Bridges for linking behaviours for OPV acceptance and routine immunisation need to be built to create long term transitions for supporting behaviours for preventative healthcare. This commitment and global support will go a long way in helping these campaigns achieve polio eradication.
January 31, 2011 at 10:24 am
Final push for polio eradication – the term has been used for many years and indeed the world is almost there – but the final push is not about lack of cash.
It is about political willingness within endemic countries and continued strong routine immunisation programems in countries. It si also about shouting louder than other issues as an advocay issue> polio is successful in doing so.
Unfortunately sustained routine immunisation and birth dose polio drops are often neglected and often lack the precision on measuring results when compared to implementing polio campaigns. Polio campaigns can also lead to large outfluxes of health staff from national health services and skewed national health priorities.
I know this may be uncomfortable but the Gates foundation is investing in targetted interventions (laudible) but neglecting the role of strong health systems in approaching disease control. Good luck and I hope there are many people from field level in countries there to tell it how its is – not only ‘global level advocates’ or ‘experts’ . Good luck with ensuring polio eradication is part of national health planning processes and not stand alone projects with parallel mechanisms.