Polio down by 40% in Nigeria, Afghanistan and Pakistan

When the Global Polio Eradication Initiative was launched in 1988, the poliovirus was circulating in 125 countries, paralysing or killing 1,000 people a day. Today polio cases have been reduced by 99 percent with only 223 cases reported worldwide in 2012. Only three countries have never stopped the transmission of the wild poliovirus– Pakistan, Afghanistan and Nigeria. 

The PolioPlus programme was incepted in 1985 and more than two billion children have received oral polio vaccine but that is not all, there are new grounds to cover. To this end, The Nigeria National Polioplus Committee under Rotary International recently organised a programme to discuss the challenges with eradicating polio, Rotary intervention among many others.

Poliovirus should not be ignored because a slight chance of lackadaisical attention can expand its spread. For instance, just last month, it found its way into the horn of Africa and almost half a million children were not vaccinated in the last four years because mass immunisation crusades was halted in south/central Somalia.

Somalia is not taking chances even as various methods are being initiated to help halt the spread. For instance, Somalia has been through the first couple of mass polio immunisation and it saw the participation of President Mogadishu in the immunisation process. The Independent Monitoring Board has observed though that at least 750,000 children are still inaccessible to vaccinators in the remaining polio-infected areas of the world.

In 1988, The Global Polio Eradication Initiative or GPEI was formed and its main aim was the eradication of polio.

According to Abdulrahman Tunji Funso, chairman, Nigeria National Polio Plus Committee (NNPC), “In setting out to eradicate polio, you are faced with 3 types of poliovirus that were paralysing children in over 125 countries. Many Rotarians are aware that one of those viruses, the type 2 wild poliovirus, paralysed its last victim in India in 1999.

Most Rotarians are not aware, however, that for the first time in history we have not seen the type 3 poliovirus anywhere in the world for more than six months. This not only gets us close to eradication, but it opens the door to using even more effective polio vaccine formulations to finish the job.

“As of today, the number of polio cases in Afghanistan, Nigeria and Pakistan is down 40% compared to the same time in 2012. The number of polio ‘reservoirs’ in Afghanistan, Nigeria and Pakistan today is down 50% compared to the same time in 2012. The number of surviving polioviruses in the world is at its lowest in history. As the Polio Independent Monitoring Board said in its most recent report in June, ‘Poliovirus has been knocked down but it is certainly not knocked out.’”

In the GPEI, Rotary works in concert with the World Health Organisation, UNICEF and the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention. They also work with the governments of the world, both in the polio affected and donor countries, and with the support of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, among other partners who have joined this successful global effort.

A major challenge with polio eradication is finance. For Nike Koshini, an executive with Rotary, “about 98 percent of contribution towards the eradication of polo comes from abroad. It is time for Nigerians to begin to look inwards and contribute immensely to help fight polio. There are countries that haven’t experienced it in years; if we put our hearts to it, it can work.”

For Charles Femi Lawani, vice chairman, Nigeria National Polio Plus Committee (NNPC), “it’s one thing to see the finish line and a very different thing to get across it. In fact, in its last report, the Polio Independent Monitoring Board stated that ‘The polio programme of today is not the programme that will completely wipe out polio.’

The Board was well aware that changes were needed to overcome the new challenges we face: challenges like the horrific attacks on health workers in Nigeria and Pakistan over the past 6 months; challenges like the limited access to children in south/central Somalia; challenges like the reduced effectiveness of the oral poliovirus vaccine in some settings; challenges like collecting that 4 billion dollars in pledges and closing the remaining 1.5 billion dollar funding gap; and challenges like those vaccine-derived polioviruses that sometimes cause new outbreaks.”

In May, the world’s ministers of health gathered in Geneva and launched a bold new ‘Polio Eradication & Endgame Strategic Plan’ that was developed by the polio partners and Rotary over the previous 12 months. “This new plan – agreed by 194 Ministers of Health – reaffirms the world’s confidence in Rotary’s vision of a polio-free world. It addresses the real costs of vaccinating more than 250 million children worldwide, multiple times every single year, interrupting poliovirus transmission and protecting polio-free countries, and especially in Africa.

This 5.5 billion budget also includes the real costs of conducting active surveillance for polio, every single day, in over 70 countries and preparing for polio-free certification in nearly 200 countries. The plan also looks beyond polio, into adapting the program’s infrastructure to deliver other health services to the world’s most vulnerable children.”

Tunji revealed, adding that “this new endgame plan does come with a daunting 5.5 billion dollar budget, but just last May dozens of longstanding and new donors reaffirmed their confidence in Rotary’s vision by pledging over 4 billion dollars in financing for the polio eradication and end time strategic plan. It’s been a very long time coming, but we can finally see the PolioPlus finish line.”

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