General News

Still more to be done to eradicate Polio: WHO

Date: Oct 24, 2016

The World Health Organisation (WHO) says although most countries have stepped up their efforts to ensure the numbers of polio are reduced.

But, the international health body says a lot more still needs to be done to ensure that the crippling and potentially fatal infectious disease is eradicated.

Monday marks World Polio Day, the day was established by Rotary International over a decade ago to commemorate the birth of Jonas Salk, who led the first team to develop a vaccine against poliomyelitis.

The WHO and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) have called for increased access in a last push to eradicate polio worldwide by 2018. A statement issued by the organisations, says the partners celebrate the successes of the programme to date and rally for the additional support needed to wipe out the disease for good. It goes on to say that in the Middle East, polio partners WHO and UNICEF acknowledge the hard work done to keep the region polio free, but urge all countries to maintain vigilance and to guard against the virus being re-introduced.

“The continued efforts of governments, partners and communities to protect children in the Middle East from polio have been truly remarkable,” said Chris Maher, Manager of WHO’s regional polio eradication group based in Amman. “But we are not out of the woods yet.

Polio continues to circulate in Afghanistan and Pakistan, and recently made a comeback in Nigeria, and so long as there is transmission anywhere, children in the Middle East remain at risk,” he added. “We cannot afford to be complacent, we must ensure systems are strong enough to keep polio out of the region, until the job is finished in all parts of the world,” Said Maher in the joint statement.

Polio affects 80 to 90% of children between one and five years old. According to the WHO there is no cure, but there are safe and effective vaccines. Polio can be prevented through immunisation. Polio vaccine, given multiple times, almost always protects a child for life.

South Africa has since been declared polio free in 2006. Polio eradication is a global effort coordinated by the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI) to deliver a polio free world by 2018. The effort requires countries to strengthen surveillance, improve the quality of immunisation campaigns and build national capacity to respond to outbreaks.

The WHO has been supporting the country to maintain the Polio Free Certification through a number of programmes including strengthening, routine and campaign immunisation activities, and collaborating with the National Certification Committee (NCC), the National Task Force on Polio Containment (NTF), and the National Polio Expert Committee (NPEC).

--WHO--

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