Stakes remain high to wipe out
polio in Africa
23 countries race to halt the
spread of the virus before the high-transmission season starts
DAKAR/NAIROBI, 8 April 2005
"With
the polio virus’ high-transmission season just months away,
African countries are redoubling their efforts this week to reach
100 million children in the second of a series of three
immunization drives scheduled for 2005. This second round, from
9-12 April, aims to contain the epidemic before the virus begins
to spread most rapidly in the July to September high season.
The stakes remain high across the
continent. The Horn of Africa is under siege following the
re-infection of Ethiopia in January by polio spreading from Sudan.
Ethiopia, polio-free since 2001, has just completed its
first-round national immunization campaign. It hopes to stop the
spread of the virus within its own borders and safeguard
vulnerable neighbours such as Somalia and Djibouti.
And in West Africa, Mali has become
the sixth formerly polio-free country to have officially
re-established polio transmission, while Nigeria has recorded a
worrying 32 cases in the first three months of the year (half of
all cases globally).
Despite the challenges, the UN
agencies and Global Polio Eradication Initiative partners Rotary
International and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention (CDC) are cautiously optimistic about the prospects for
this round.
Early reports indicate that the
first round of the year, from 25 February-1 March, reached as many
as 95 million children. For the first time in many months,
vaccination teams were able to reach children in some of the
continent’s most troubled spots, such as Cote d’Ivoire and
Sudan. With border territories, refugee camps and conflict zones
among the areas at highest risk for transmission, as well as the
hardest to access with vaccines, cooperation among governments has
been crucial.
Still, significant gaps in coverage
exist, in some areas as high as 20%, and the polio caseload
remains high in the most affected areas.
“We’re determined to halt the
transmission of polio in Africa in 2005,” says Dr. Ezio Murzi,
UNICEF Regional Director for West and Central Africa. “But too
many children are being missed. We need to make a final push to
reach all children everywhere to slow the epidemic and stop the
virus before the heat and the rains set in as of June.”
During a recent visit by the WHO
Regional Director for Africa, Dr. Luis Sambo, to the African Union
headquarters in Addis Ababa, the President of the African Union
Commission reaffirmed his strong commitment to a polio free Africa
by the end of 2005. Moreover, Dr. Sambo has attended the flag-off
ceremony of the second round of NIDs in Nigeria, led by the
Federal Minister of Health and the Executive Governor of the
Northern state of Zamfara.
"We should pull out all stops to
ensure that all missed children are reached", says Dr. Sambo. "The
prize is closer now than ever before. Together with partners, we
are working to maintain momentum until the disease is finally
gone”.
Africa accounts for 75% (48 of 64)
of polio cases reported worldwide in 2005. The frontline of the
virus on the continent has expanded, with polio spreading to 14
countries, in comparison with only 3 in 2002, and virus reported
as far afield as Saudi Arabia. In many countries, low childhood
immunization rates compounded by civil unrest and population
movement, has made stopping the virus hard.
“The triumph over polio
worldwide depends on high quality campaigns that deliver the
polio vaccine to each and every child, including the most
vulnerable and hardest-to-reach children,” said Ambroise
Tschimbalanga-Kasongo, African Regional PolioPlus Committee
Chairman for Rotary International. “It is truly an inspiration
to witness the commitment of the tens of thousands of health
workers, volunteers and Rotary members who are going
house-to-house and village-to-village, to hand-deliver the oral
polio vaccine to every child.”
Health officials have reaffirmed
that stopping polio across Africa in 2005 is feasible, just as
similar campaigns from 2000-2002 stopped polio in all but three
countries across the region (Nigeria, Niger and Egypt).
But funding is becoming a critical
concern. To continue to finance the 2005 rounds, US $75 million
is needed by July. A further US $200 million will be needed to
support activities in 2006.
Notes to editors:
The Global Polio Eradication
Initiative is spearheaded by the World Health Organization,
Rotary International, the US Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention and the UNICEF.
The poliovirus is now endemic in 6
countries – Nigeria, India, Pakistan, Niger, Afghanistan and
Egypt – down from over 125 when the Global Polio Eradication
Initiative was launched in 1988. Polio is spread by faecal-oral
contact and can be prevented by an oral vaccine.
The polio eradication coalition
includes governments of countries affected by polio, private
sector foundations (e.g. United Nations Foundation, Bill &
Melinda Gates Foundation); development banks (e.g. the World
Bank); donor governments (e.g. Australia, Austria, Belgium,
Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy,
Japan, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway,
Portugal, Qatar, the Russian Federation, Spain, Sweden, United
Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom and the United States of
America); the European Commission; humanitarian and
nongovernmental organizations (e.g. the International Red Cross
and Red Crescent societies) and corporate partners (e.g. Sanofi
Pasteur, De Beers, Wyeth). Volunteers in developing countries
also play a key role; 20 million have participated in mass
immunization campaigns.
For further information, please
contact:
Thierry Delvigne-Jean, UNICEF West
and Central Africa Office, Dakar, Tel: +221-869-5843, Mobile:
+221-503-0845, tdelvignejean@unicef.org
Victor Chinyama, UNICEF Eastern
and Southern Africa Office, Nairobi, Tel: +254-20-622218
Mobile: +254-722-701 505,
vchinyama@unicef.org
Samuel Ajibola, WHO Regional
Office for Africa, Brazzaville, Congo. Tel: + 47 241 39378;
Mobile: +242 537 3353; ajibolas@afro.who.int
For further information on the
Global Polio Eradication Initiative, please check:
http://www.polioeradication.org/
United Nations Children's Fund
West and Central Africa Regional Office
Dakar, Senegal
Telephone: 221-869-5843
Mobile: 221-503-0845
E-mail: tdelvignejean@unicef.org
Web: www.unicef.org
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