After an year of shrinking polio cases worldwide, the
crippling disease is now on the cusp of being eradicated, said top health
officials at Rotary's second annual World Polio Day event on 24 October.
At a special Livestream
program -- World Polio Day: Make History Today -- Rotary
leaders joined global health experts and celebrity singers to hail the progress
of the Global Polio Eradication
Initiative. After nearly 30 years, the GPEI, which includes
Rotary, the World Health Organization, UNICEF, U.S. Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention, and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, is on the brink of
ending polio by 2018, making it the second infectious disease to be eradicated.
"A world without polio is within our grasp more
than at any point in the past," said Tom Frieden, director of the CDC,
during a video message to the audience. "The poliovirus continues to lose
ground. Next month we will mark two years since the last case of wild
poliovirus type 3, giving every appearance of eradication, and leaving only
type 1 in the world."
The total number of global cases to date is 247,
compared with 298 for the same period last year. Outside Pakistan, which saw
its polio cases spike this year, the number of cases has been 35, a dramatic
decrease from 187 a year ago. Pakistan accounts for 85 percent of global cases
of polio this year, Frieden noted. Pakistan, along with Afghanistan and
Nigeria, are three remaining polio endemic countries.
The GPEI is on the verge of a major polio achievement
in Nigeria. The country has registered only six cases to date this year.
"Nigeria is in excellent position to stop circulation of polio this
year," said Frieden. "It has gotten 'this close' to eradicating polio
by a remarkable turnaround of the program, implementing an emergency operations
center, developing a proactive approach to eradication, finding innovative ways
to reach children in insecure areas."
Frieden talked about how Nigeria's Polio Emergency
Operations Center aided in the quick and effective response to the country's
Ebola outbreak. Senior officials from the center were sent to Lagos to lead the
effort. They opened an Ebola treatment unit and conducted contact tracing with
up to 500 people per day.
"In spite of these efforts, polio activities did
not suffer," said Frieden. "This is the legacy of polio eradication
in action, and it saved lives by successfully stopping the outbreak."
Most of the polio cases in Afghanistan in 2014 are the
result of reintroduction from Pakistan, said James Alexander, senior medical
epidemiologist for the CDC. But the country has made significant progress the
last two years because of the implementation of its emergency action plan, he
said.
"To ensure progress in 2015, there needs to be
engagement with new national leadership, intensified focus on 'missed'
children, and continued dialogue with other countries," Alexander told
attendees.
In March a key milestone was met when the World Health
Organization certified its 11-country Southeast Asia region had eradicated
polio. Now, 80 percent of the world's population live in areas that are
certified polio-free.
Co-sponsored by Rotary and Sanofi
Pasteur, the program took place before a live audience in
Chicago and streamed online for viewers worldwide. Time magazine science and
technology editor Jeffery Kluger moderated
the event.
Olivier Charmeil,
president and CEO of Sanofi Pasteur, the largest manufacturer of polio vaccine,
said in a video address that this year's World Polio Day is significant
"because we are beginning the last chapter on polio."
Led by Nepal, a group
of 120 countries will introduce the inactivated polio vaccine in the next few
months. Charmeil said IPV, an injectable polio vaccine, will be part of all
routine immunization programs in every country around the world.
"I look
forward to the day we can stand together, alongside Rotary and the other
international partners, the day we declare the world polio free," Charmeil
told the audience.
Rotary General
Secretary John Hewko praised the work of the GPEI, calling the organization
"perhaps the most ambitious and effective public-private partnership ever
assembled." More than 2.5 billion children have been vaccinated since its
launch.
The annual number
of polio cases has fallen from 350,000 in 1988 to 416 in 2013, and 222 so far
this year, a remarkable decrease of more than 99 percent. UNICEF estimates that
10 million people would have otherwise been infected, while 1.5 million lives
have been saved.
Rotary has
contributed more than $1.2 billion to polio eradication since taking on the
disease in 1979. That amount got a significant boost earlier this week after
Rotary announced it will provide an additional $44.7 million toward the polio fight.
"Once we wipe
polio from the face of the planet, we will not only have ensured no child will
ever again be paralyzed by this terrible disease, we will have set the stage
for the next major global health initiative, whatever it may be," said
Hewko.
With Sunzilach online
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