As we mark World Polio Day, advocates for a polio-free world are calling on nations to commit to a new five-year strategy to eradicate this debilitating disease and toss it on the dustbin of history. An estimated 350,000 children were paralyzed by polio when the World Health Organization launched its Global Polio Eradication Initiative in 1988.
In today's world, polio is endemic only in Pakistan and Afghanistan. world at your fingertips. The WHO points out that the last stage is the most difficult and warns nations not to let their guard down too soon.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus says the 29 registered cases include a small number in south-east Africa linked to a tribe originating in Pakistan. As long as polio circulates everywhere, it poses a threat to children around the world. Despite this news, right now we have a unique opportunity to end polio forever. poliovirus. These variants, he notes, can arise in places where not enough people are immunized against this debilitating disease.
Reports that these variants continue to spread in parts of Africa, Asia and Europe, and new outbreaks have been identified in the UK, Israel and the United States in recent months. UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell says the new polio eradication strategy is designed to get the world on track. She says the strategy includes tactics to protect children from different outbreaks and stop them from spreading to other countries. "We are also working with governments to expedite our
response to these outbreaks and are acting immediately to ensure no more children are harmed," Russel said. “And we continue to work to integrate polio activities with other health and immunization programs so we can reach high-risk children who have never been vaccinated before.
The new strategy will help us end all forms of polio. It will also help prepare countries to respond to future health threats. If this goal is met, polio will become the second disease after smallpox to be eliminated from the face. of Earth.health agencies say it will cost $4.8 billion to reach this historic milestone.
The economic benefits, they say, will be significant. They estimate that eradicating polio would save more than $33 billion.