Usually one reads about health emergencies when
cases are increasing and at high levels but polio has been
declared an emergency when cases are decreasing and at record low
levels. What explains this ironic situation is that the global
effort to eradicate polio from the world population is now down to
only three endemic countries, and it is more important than ever
to finish the job lest polio resurge as it has done in the recent
past when success was within sight.
Leaders Speak
The WHO Director Margaret Chan has said “polio
eradication is at a tipping point between success and failure,”
and CDC Director Tom Frieden has remarked “We need everyone’s
commitment and hard work to eradicate polio and cross the finish
line. It won’t be easy, but together we can eradicate polio
forever and for everyone.”
In January 2012 finishing the task of polio
eradication was declared an emergency by the executive board of
the WHO and this action was ratified by the entire World Health
Assembly meeting in Geneva last month. A Global Emergency Action
Plan 2012-2013 has been developed to assist the three remaining
endemic countries –Afghanistan, Nigeria, and Pakistan –to
significantly increase vaccination coverage by the end of 2012 to
levels high enough to stop transmission shortly afterwards, and
increased accountability and coordination at every level of
government and within every partner agency. The CDC in the US is
also treating the completion of polio eradication as a public
health emergency and has activated its Emergency Operations Center
as has UNICEF.
Big Victory In
India
The most encouraging news in the polio effort of
late was the success in interrupting transmission of polio in
India in the twelve month period February 2011 to February 2012.
This is the first time India has been polio free and, according to
CDC, “India’s success proves the technical feasibility of global
polio eradication and highlights potential solutions to address
operational challenges in other countries.”
In an article in the Atlantic, Bruce Aylward,
head epidemiologist of the WHO eradication program, said “if we
finish polio eradication, what it will prove is that with a
relatively modest investment in the grand scheme of things, you
can achieve real health outcomes.
Halo Effect
Success with polio eradication could have a halo
effect on other important causes of morbidity and mortality at the
global level, for example with the high burden of chronic
diseases. As reported in the Atlantic, India’s prime minister has
stated how success in polio has given his government the
confidence to tackle other health issues, such as measles and
malnutrition, and bolstered his plans to create new public health
cadres to work for the prevention and control of disease. |