Polio Eradication Update
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Polio Eradication Partners rush Vaccine to halt Yemen outbreak The Global Polio Eradication Initiative has announced the shipment of six million doses of oral polio vaccine to Yemen, where a fresh polio outbreak has infected 63 children. The Middle Eastern country had been polio-free for close to 10 years but suffered a setback when 22 cases of the disease were reported in late April. A joint press release issued on 10 May by the initiative's spearheading partners — Rotary International, UNICEF, U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the World Health Organization — explained that the monovalent oral polio vaccine type 1 (mOPV1) dispatched to Yemen is more effective in fighting the strain of virus behind the outbreak. Health workers and volunteers will use the vaccine to immunize millions of Yemeni children during National Immunization Days at the end of May. WHO experts are currently assisting with planning and the training of vaccinators and supervisors. "Experience shows that sporadic polio outbreaks in previously polio-free countries, such as Yemen and Indonesia, can be stopped quickly, provided high-quality immunization campaigns are implemented rapidly," the GPEI partners say. "While these events strain the financial resources of the global eradication effort, they do not threaten its ultimate success." In the Horn of Africa, Ethiopia reported the spread of an outbreak from neighboring Sudan in February. The horn is just across the Red Sea from Yemen. In addition to weak health infrastructures and inadequate immunization programs, population movements due to commerce and armed conflicts in the Red Sea area have increased the likelihood of an outbreak quickly spreading across several countries. Yemen launched a pre-emptive immunization effort in April to protect more than four million children from the risk of infection posed by poliovirus imported from the horn. Now, more needs to be done to stop the spread of the disease. Epidemiologists fear that more than 100 new cases will be confirmed before the outbreak is halted. While the genetic origin of the virus in Yemen is still under investigation, most of the recent polio outbreaks — including cases imported into previously polio-free Indonesia in early May — have been traced to northern Nigeria, the source of a 2003 outbreak of the disease that spread to 16 formerly polio-free African countries. The Rotary Foundation of Rotary International has contributed more than US$1.2 million toward the eradication of polio in Yemen.
================================= This Smithsonian National Museum of American History exhibit celebrates the 50th anniversary of effective vaccines to prevent polio. On April 12, 1955, Dr. Jonas Salk, a virologist working at the University of Pittsburgh with funding from the March of Dimes, announced his vaccine against the disease. In 1957, trials of Dr. Albert Sabin's vaccine began. Between 1955 and 1957, the incidence of polio in the U.S dropped by 85 to 90 percent. Since it draws upon the vast collections of the Smithsonian, the exhibit is lavishly illustrated with historical photographs, and all kinds of ephemera, such as an advertisement for Drinker-Collins respirators, "Polio Pioneer" buttons given to children who participated in Salk vaccine clinical trials, and a March of Dimes bank. The exhibit provides background information on polio- related topics including the March of Dimes, established by Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1938, an organization that took in millions of small donations to support the care of people who contracted polio and research into prevention and treatment; the history of vaccines; and the differences between Salk's killed-virus vaccine, and Sabin's live-virus vaccine. ================================= In 1985, Rotary launched the PolioPlus program to protect children worldwide from the cruel and fatal consequences of polio. In 1988, the World Health Assembly challenged the world to eradicate polio. Since that time, Rotary's efforts and those of partner agencies, including the World Health Organization, the United Nations Children's Fund, the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and governments around the world, have achieved a 99 percent reduction in the number of polio cases worldwide. Rotarians stand at the brink of a great victory and look forward to celebrating the global eradication of polio. ========== May 11, 2005 "Rotary's Big Boots" - download and read The New York Times article on Polio
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