Will Polio Be Eradicated?
paralytic polio such that by 1965 only 61 cases of paralytic polio were recorded in the U.S. Vaccination of all children in the U.S. resulted in the elimination of paralytic polio in 1979.
Unfortunately, many believed that polio was relatively uncommon in the developing nations of our world. It was not until lameness surveys conducted in the 1970's did people realize that polio was also widespread in developing countries. This lead the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) in 1985 to launch an initiative to eradicate polio in the Americas by 1990. The Rotary International in 1987 started a fund-raising campaign to obtain US$120 million to begin a global eradication of polio. By 1988 the Rotary International announced that they had raised US$247 million which together with funds pledged by the Japanese government lead the World Health Assembly in 1988 to pass a resolution to eradicate polio by the year 2000. This resolution was called the Global Polio Eradication Initiative
In 1988 wild poliovirus was endemic in more than 125 countries on five continents, paralyzing more than 1000 children every day. Since then around two billion children have been immunized against polio thanks to the cooperation of more than 200 countries and 20 million volunteers, backed by an international investment of US$ 3 billion.
Significant progress has been made. As of April 2005 only 1267 cases of paralytic polio have been reported in the past 26 weeks. Only 6 countries have reported endemic cases of paralytic polio (Nigeria, India, Pakistan, Niger, Afghanistan and Egypt). Nigeria has the most cases and that is because for political reasons three of its provinces refused to allow immunization of their children against polio. Fortunately, those states are now allowing polio immunization again.
Unfortunately, in any initiative there are setbacks. A recent report indicates that paralytic polio cases have been confirmed in 13 countries previously free of polio. Of those 6 countries have reported person-to-person transmission of polio indicating that either these countries have not gotten rid of polio or that someone with polio came into the country and the virus has reestablished itself. Wars, conflict and political agendas are oftentimes the means infectious agents can take advantage of to reestablish itself in a population. The Nigerian provinces refusing to immunize its children, and civil unrest in Cote d'Ivoire and Sudan have allowed the virus to spread.
As one prominent polio researcher said "We can spend as much time as we like on the science but in the end, science will be trumped by social issues and by politics." -Mark Pallansch
One other time in history people pulled
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