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- Polio vaccinators killed in Nigeria
8 February 2013
Last updated at 11:47
Nigeria is one of only three countries where polio is still endemic
Nine female polio vaccinators have been killed in two shootings at health centres in northern Nigeria, police have told the BBC.
In the first attack in Kano the polio vaccinators were shot dead by gunmen who drove up on a motor tricycle.
Thirty minutes later gunmen targeted a clinic outside Kano city as the vaccinators prepared to start work.
Some Nigerian Muslim leaders have previously opposed polio vaccinations, claiming they could cause infertility.
On Thursday, a controversial Islamic cleric spoke out against the polio vaccination campaign, telling people that new cases of polio were caused by contaminated medicine.
Such opposition is a major reason why Nigeria is one of just three countries where polio is still endemic.
But this is believed to be the first time polio vaccinators have been attacked in the country.
Some Kano residents told the BBC’s Yusuf Yakasai in the city that other people injured in the first attack had been taken to hospital.
A health official confirmed to the BBC that those killed in the second attack in Hotoro were female health workers – there were earlier reports that people waiting at the clinic may have been among those shot.
Witnesses in Hotoro told the BBC gunmen also approached the health centre using a motor tricycle.
Kano banned motorbikes from carrying passengers after a recent attack on the prominent Muslim leader, the emir of Kano.
Analysts believe the attacks may have been the work of the militant Islamist group Boko Haram but it has not yet commented and no group has said it carried out the attack.
The group – whose name translates as “Western education is forbidden” – says it is fighting to overthrow the government and impose Sharia.
It has been blamed for the deaths of some 1,400 people in central and northern Nigeria since 2010.
According to the Global Polio Eradication Initiative, there were 121 cases of polio in Nigeria last year, compared to 58 in Pakistan and 37 in Afghanistan.
In the past month, polio workers have also been targeted and killed in Pakistan, where the Taliban have threatened anti-polio efforts – accusing health workers of working as US spies and alleging that the vaccine makes children sterile.
Article source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-21381773#sa-ns_mchannel=rss&ns_source=PublicRSS20-sa
- Bill Gates: The world can defeat polio
28 January 2013
Last updated at 01:14
Fergus Walsh
Medical correspondentVaccination is key to controlling the disease
Glance at the latest figures for polio incidence and it would appear that the world is within touching distance of eradicating the disease.
Last year there were just 205 cases of naturally occurring poliovirus compared with 650 cases in 2011 and a staggering 350,000 a quarter of a century ago.
There are now three countries – Pakistan, Afghanistan and Nigeria – where transmission of the disease has never been halted compared to 125 countries in the late 1980s.
India has been polio-free for two years – a remarkable achievement.
This week the billionaire philanthropist Bill Gates will deliver the annual BBC Richard Dimbleby Lecture in which he will spell out his commitment to ridding the world of this dread infectious disease which can cause paralysis and even death within hours.
Bill Gates is the single most influential voice in global health, so when he turns his attention to an issue, it is worth listening.
Through the Gates Foundation, Bill and his wife Melinda have already given away nearly $30 billion of their fortune and there are tens of billions more in the pipeline.
He has spoken to me previously of his passionate belief in the power of vaccines and his determination to defeat polio.
In his lecture Mr Gates will liken the pace of innovation in computers with the fight against polio: .
He will say: “In the late 1970s we had a dream of giving everybody access to computer technology – a vision of a computer on every desktop. Now there is a computer in every pocket.
“The pace of innovation keeps getting faster. The same is true of polio.
“It was first recognised at least 4,000 years ago, but it was just 200 years ago we figured out it’s contagious – just 100 years ago we learned it’s a virus. Just 50 years ago we developed the vaccine to prevent it.
“Just 25 years ago we resolved to eradicate it. And so on.“
But Mr Gates will also acknowledge that the final push against polio is proving extremely difficult: “I can say without reservation that the last mile is not only the hardest mile; it’s also much harder than I expected,” he said.
The killing of nine health workers in Pakistan last month was a shocking reminder of the challenges facing those trying to chase down the virus and protect every last child. I have written before of the hurdles facing immunisation teams.
Part of polio’s danger is its utter portability – it can be spread across borders by one infected traveller, who can continue to shed virus for weeks on end.
Only last week an emergency vaccination programme was ordered in Cairo after samples of the polio virus were found in sewage – the strain matches that in southern Pakistan.
The oral polio vaccine can – in very rare cases – trigger polio. The WHO says this happens in one in 2.5 million first doses of vaccine.
Over the past decade 15 billion doses of polio vaccine drops have been given and there have been 200 confirmed cases of circulating vaccine-derived polio virus.
But with naturally occurring polio cases now so low there is a minority which claims the oral live vaccine is causing significant harm.
Dr Jacob Puliyel, a paediatrician in Delhi, wrote in the Indian Journal of Medical Ethics last year that “the polio eradication programme epitomises nearly everything that is wrong with donor-funded ‘disease specific’ vertical projects, at the cost of investments in community-oriented primary care”.
Dr Puliyel said the money spent on fighting polio in India would have been put to better use on water, sanitation and routine immunisation.
Now or never
Dr Puliyel blames the polio vaccine for a sharp rise in India of cases of Acute Flaccid Paralysis – weakness or inability to move limbs.
But polio is just one of many causes, with other viruses and bacteria also responsible. Public health officials also point out that monitoring of cases is now far better than in previous decades.
In pure economic terms it is hard to justify the $1bn (£630,000) spent annually on driving down polio cases by a few hundred each year.
It makes sense only if global eradication is achieved. Then the repeated – sometimes monthly – polio immunisation rounds in at-risk communities can stop and the vaccine be part of the standard childhood schedule.
This is a now or never moment – kick polio off the planet over the next few years or face a humiliating retreat which could see the virus re-emerge in scores of countries.
Bill Gates recognises what is at stake for global health: “Polio eradication is a proving ground, a test. It will reveal what human beings are capable of, and suggest how ambitious we can be about our future.”
The 2013 Richard Dimbleby Lecture will be shown on Tuesday 29 January on BBC One at 22:35 GMT
Article source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-21207601#sa-ns_mchannel=rss&ns_source=PublicRSS20-sa
- Nigeria’s battle to contain polio
14 January 2013
Last updated at 07:40
A village leader who helps encourage polio vaccination shows his certificate
The end of 2012 was supposed to be a moment when the world could celebrate having eradicated the polio virus.
But instead another deadline has been missed.
Three countries remain where the transmission of polio has never been interrupted – Afghanistan, Pakistan and Nigeria.
Nigeria is being watched more closely than anywhere else: its cases reached a three-year high with more than 100 in 2012.
The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, as well as Rotary International, are pouring significant money and effort into the global campaign to end polio.
Cases are concentrated in particular pockets of several states in northern Nigeria.
The young children who cheerfully thronged around me in Duhuwa village might yet be lucky enough to grow up in a world without polio.
One of the community leaders proudly shows me a certificate marking his role in helping what are now vigorous immunisation campaigns in Nigeria.
He told me through a translator: “We’ve had no polio cases here for 10 years. People here accept vaccination.
“I’m very grateful to God that people are responding and accepting intervention.”
Suspicion lingers
But in another village about half an hour’s drive away, a mother of eight who teaches the Koran says suspicion still lingers that the drops of polio vaccine are a western plot to sterilise Muslim children.
Continue reading the main story
“Start Quote
Just when you think you’re done with polio, it begins to show its face again”
End Quote
Yusuf Yusufari,
Health workerShe has to immunise her own children in front of a wide audience, to win the confidence of other mothers.
She said: “I gather a big group of extended families. I open the box of vaccines in front of them, and do my children first. If not, the women wouldn’t accept it.
“They fear that I give ‘good vaccine’ to my own children, and leave the rest for others.
“Another misconception is that the jabs are a family planning method that will ultimately stop the children from giving birth when they want to.”
The polio virus invades the nervous system, and can cause paralysis in hours. Survivors often have wasted limbs.
Even small drops in vaccination levels among children can lead to large outbreaks.
That is why eradication is so important.
Vaccination ‘resistance’
Yusuf Yusufari is a health worker in Yobe, one of the north Nigerian states which has had polio cases this year – because parents have either refused the vaccine, or their children have simply been missed.
Sometimes, he says, resistance comes down to a feeling that not enough is being done to tackle other basic diseases.
Polio cases are concentrated in northern Nigeria
Yusuf told me: “It’s really challenging. Just when you think you’re done with polio, it begins to show its face again.
“Part of the mindset that resists vaccination is that it’s some sort of global agenda linked with contraception.
“The other perspective is that people witness lots of malaria.
“They say – why are you bringing polio vaccination to my doorstep every month, but no anti-malarial drugs?”
That standpoint has to be confronted head on, according to England’s former chief medical officer, Sir Liam Donaldson.
He is leading independent monitors overseeing the polio eradication efforts.
Their latest report gave a blunt warning that Nigeria may end up being the last country in the world with polio.
Communities should have their broader health needs taken into account by vaccination campaigns, the report recommended.
Feeling the heat
There are though grounds for optimism that 2013 might be different.
Fresh energy is being put into vaccine campaigns – even using satellite tracking to detect settlements where children might be missed.
Continue reading the main story
“Start Quote
If we don’t eradicate polio, I’ll consider my legacy to be a failed one.”
End Quote
Dr Muhammad Pate
Nigeria health ministerLocal staff who are deemed ineffective have been fired. And lessons are being learned from India, which marked a year without polio cases early in 2012.
On his private jet, the Nigerian billionaire Aliko Dangote – whose business empire includes production of cement, flour and sugar – explained why he is involved in an initiative to double immunisation efforts in his home state, Kano.
It is a hub for polio cases.
He said: “Most people you see who are crippled by polio are from northern Nigeria.
“We now have the buy-in of the state governor, and I believe that Kano will soon have a success story.
“I intend to go there and help with the polio immunisation exercise twice a year. I might even try to do more than that.”
It is 30 years since polio was transmitted in the UK.
But in Nigeria, operations still have to be carried out on young polio survivors who need corrective surgery. Senior politicians are feeling the heat from the global campaign.
In his office in the capital Abuja, I asked the health minister Dr Muhammad Pate how much he felt was resting on his shoulders.
He said: “I feel my head is sticking out on this. If we don’t successfully conclude the efforts in eradicating polio, I’ll consider my legacy to be a failed one.
“Polio eradication is do-able. Other countries have done it – therefore we can do it in Nigeria.”
Article source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-20819972#sa-ns_mchannel=rss&ns_source=PublicRSS20-sa
- Polio killings a major setback
19 December 2012
Last updated at 12:55
Fergus Walsh
Medical correspondentVaccination is key to controlling the disease
The killing of eight polio workers in Pakistan in two days is a brutal reminder of the hurdles facing health teams trying to eradicate the virus from one of its few remaining strongholds.
Pakistan, along with Afghanistan and Nigeria are the only countries where polio is endemic, which means transmission of the virus has never been halted.
The shootings, in a series of attacks, represent a major setback in the quest for a polio-free world.
The decision by the UN to suspend the immunisation campaign is understandable but deeply regrettable.
So far this year there have been 56 cases in Pakistan – a significant reduction on the nearly 200 cases last year.
Unless immunisation is re-started promptly it will allow the virus time to spread and infect more children. It will also risk the disease spreading beyond Pakistan’s borders to India, which has been polio-free for more than a year.
The virus is highly contagious and spreads through the faecal-oral route – via contaminated water or food. It can damage the central nervous system causing paralysis and even death.
Karachi – where four female health workers were shot yesterday is one of a number of areas in Pakistan where wild poliovirus is being spread. The others are districts in the Balochistan Province, in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) and the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
Health officials point out that Pakistan and neighbouring Afghanistan repeatedly re-infect one another due to significant population movements between the countries.
Vaccine myths
Who carried out the killings in Pakistan is unclear but the Taliban have repeatedly denounced the polio vaccination campaign claiming the workers are acting as spies for the US and that the virus causes sterility or HIV/AIDS.
Claims that the vaccine programme is a plot against Muslims have been around for years. They reached their peak in northern Nigeria in 2003 – when the immunisation programme was suspended following claims that the vaccine was contaminated with oestrogen and would cause infertility.
The year-long suspension of polio immunisation led to a major resurgence of the disease in Nigeria with hundreds of children becoming disabled.
When I visited Kano in northern Nigeria in 2005 the authorities had re-started the immunisation programme and religious leaders were voicing their support. But the global impact of the ban had been immense.
Infected travellers had carried the virus to nearly 20 previously polio-free countries causing more than 1200 polio cases.
UN officials in Nigeria told me they had switched to a polio vaccine produced in Indonesia – a predominantly Muslim country – which they hoped would allay any fears about its safety.
The oral polio drops used in the developing world are made from a live weakened virus – which carries a minute risk of causing polio in every million doses given. But the dangers from not being immunised are far higher.
Some of the bizarre myths about the polio vaccine persist in Pakistan, but there are other problems too.
Militants in parts of Pakistan’s tribal regions are reported to have said the vaccination programme can’t go forward until the US stops drone attacks in the country.
Last year a Pakistani doctor ran a fake vaccination programme to help the CIA track down Osama bin Laden. That has put all immunisation campaigns – especially those with international links – under suspicion.
In a report last month the Independent Monitoring Board (IMB) of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative said significant progress had been made in Pakistan in 2012.
Increased pay for vaccinators in some key areas and a drop in the number of parents refusing immunisation for their children were both seen as positive signs.
But the report pointed to an earlier killing of two polio workers as a “tragic and important reminder of the bravery of polio staff”.
This is yet another key moment in the battle against polio. The tragic killings in Karachi could have profound long-term consequences for the health of children in Pakistan and beyond.
Article source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-20785466#sa-ns_mchannel=rss&ns_source=PublicRSS20-sa
- Polio workers killed in Peshawar
19 December 2012
Last updated at 14:35
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Two polio vaccination workers have been killed in north-western Pakistan in the latest of a spate of deadly attacks.
The shootings in the Peshawar region left a vaccination supervisor and her driver dead, and injured a volunteer.
The deaths brought to eight the number of health workers killed in this week’s anti-polio drive. The three-day drive is now over.
No group has claimed responsibility, but the Taliban have issued threats against the UN’s anti-polio efforts.
The militants have accused health workers of working as US spies and say the vaccine makes children sterile.
Pakistan is one of just three countries where the disease is still endemic.
Coming after five deaths on Tuesday, and one on Monday, the UN children’s agency Unicef and the World Health Organisation halted work in Sindh province in the south and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in the north-west on Tuesday. The suspension was extended nationwide on Wednesday.
The UN provides technical and financial support to employees and volunteers of the local health departments who administer the polio drops.
Despite the killings, the immunisation drive continued in some areas on Wednesday – although a number of local health workers refused to go out, Reuters news agency reported.
‘We risk our lives’
In Wednesday’s violence, the vaccination supervisor and her driver died when their car was sprayed with bullets by gunmen riding motorbikes in Charsadda district, north-east of Peshawar, police said.
The student volunteer was shot in the head and critically injured when gunmen on two motorbikes fired at a team of vaccinators in a northern suburb of Peshawar.
Gunmen riding motorbikes also shot at polio vaccinators in another area of Charsadda and in the adjoining district of Nowshera, although no injuries were reported.
On Tuesday, four female health workers were shot dead in the space of 20 minutes in Karachi, and a fifth woman died after being shot in Peshawar. A day earlier a male health worker working on the anti-polio drive was also killed in Karachi, although police have suggested other factors may also lie behind his death.
Correspondents say the authorities were caught off guard by the violence – until now most attacks on health workers have taken place in north-western areas near militant strongholds.
At a rally in Islamabad, health worker Ambreen Bibi told Reuters: “We go out and risk our lives to save other people’s children from being permanently handicapped, for what? So that our own children become orphans?”
Wednesday was the final day of a three-day nationwide anti-polio drive – during which an estimated 5.2 million polio drops were to be administered.
There has been opposition to such immunisation efforts in parts of Pakistan, particularly after a fake CIA hepatitis vaccination campaign helped to locate Osama Bin Laden in 2011.
Militants have kidnapped and killed foreign NGO workers in the past in an attempt to halt the immunisation drives, which they say are part of efforts to spy on them.
Afghanistan and Nigeria are the only other countries where polio is still endemic.
Pakistan is considered the key battleground in the global fight against the disease, which attacks the nervous system and can cause permanent paralysis within hours of infection.
Almost 200 children were paralysed in the country in 2011 – the worst figures in 15 years.
Earlier this year, the Global Polio Eradication Initiative warned that tackling the disease had entered “emergency mode” after “explosive” outbreaks in countries previously free of polio.
The World Health Organization said polio was at a tipping point, with experts fearing it could “come back with a vengeance” after large outbreaks in Africa and Tajikistan, and China’s first recorded cases for more than a decade.
Declaring polio a national emergency, the Pakistani government is targeting 33 million children for vaccination with some 88,000 health workers delivering vaccination drops.
Poliomyelitis has existed as long as human society, but became a major public health issue in late Victorian times with major epidemics in Europe and the United States. The disease, which causes spinal and respiratory paralysis, can kill and remains incurable but vaccines have assisted in its almost total eradication today.
This Egyptian stele (an upright stone carving) dating from 1403-1365BC shows a priest with a walking stick and foot, deformities characteristic of polio. The disease was given its first clinical description in 1789 by the British physician Michael Underwood, and recognised as a condition by Jakob Heine in 1840. The first modern epidemics were fuelled by the growth of cities after the industrial revolution.
In 1916, New York experienced the first large epidemic, with more than 9,000 cases and 2,343 deaths. The 1916 toll nationwide was 27,000 cases and 6,000 deaths. Children were particularly affected; the image shows child patients suffering from eye paralysis. Major outbreaks became more frequent during the century: in 1952, the US saw a record 57,628 cases.
In 1928, Philip Drinker and Louie Shaw developed the “iron lung” to save the lives of those left paralysed by polio and unable to breathe. Most patients would spend around two weeks in the device, but those left permanently paralysed faced a lifetime of confinement. By 1939, around 1,000 were in use in the US. Today, the iron lung is all but gone, made redundant by vaccinations and modern mechanical ventilators.
A major breakthrough came in 1952 when Dr Jonas Salk (L) began to develop the first effective vaccine against polio. Mass public vaccination programmes followed and had an immediate effect; in the US alone cases fell from 35,000 in 1953 to 5,300 in 1957. In 1961, Albert Sabin (R) pioneered the more easily administered oral polio vaccine (OPV).
Despite the availability of vaccines polio remained a threat, with 707 acute cases and 79 deaths in the UK as late as 1961. In 1962, Britain switched to Sabin’s OPV vaccine, in line with most countries in the developed world. There have been no domestically acquired cases of the disease in the UK since 1982.
By 1988, polio had disappeared from the US, UK, Australia and much of Europe but remained prevalent in more than 125 countries. The same year, the World Health Assembly adopted a resolution to eradicate the disease completely by the year 2000.
The WHO Americas region was certified polio free in 1994, with the last wild case recorded in the Western Pacific region (which includes China) in 1997. A further landmark came in 2002, when the WHO certified the European region polio-free.
In 2012, Polio remains officially endemic in four countries – Afghanistan, Nigeria, Pakistan and India, which is on the verge of being removed from the list having not had a case since January 2011. Despite so much progress, polio remains a risk with virus from Pakistan re-infecting China in 2011, which had been polio free for more than a decade.
Article source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-20779388#sa-ns_mchannel=rss&ns_source=PublicRSS20-sa
- Pakistan polio drive scaled back
19 December 2012
Last updated at 10:45
Pakistan is considered a key battleground in the global fight against polio
The UN has scaled back an anti-polio campaign in Pakistan after two more health workers died in the latest of a spate of gun attacks.
Attacks in the Peshawar region killed a vaccination supervisor and her driver, and injured a student volunteer.
No group has claimed responsibility, but the Taliban have issued threats against the UN’s anti-polio campaign.
Coming after five deaths on Tuesday the UN said it was pulling staff involved in the campaign from the streets.
The UN provides technical and financial support to employees and volunteers of the local health department who administer the polio drops.
Despite the killings, Pakistani officials insisted the immunisation drive was continuing in some areas, even though a number of Pakistani health workers were refusing to go out, Reuters news agency reported.
Pakistan is one of just three countries where the disease is still endemic.
Nationwide drive
The vaccination supervisor and her driver died when their car was sprayed by gunmen riding motorbikes in Charsadda district, north-east of Peshawar, police said.
The student volunteer was shot in the head and critically injured when gunmen on two motorbikes fired at a team of vaccinators in a northern suburb of Peshawar.
Gunmen riding motorbikes also shot at polio vaccinators in another area of Charsadda and in the adjoining district of Nowshera, although no injuries were reported.
The UN children’s agency Unicef and the World Health Organisation were suspending work on the programme nationwide after Wednesday’s bloodshed, said Unicef spokesman Michael Coleman.
The programme was halted in Sindh province on Tuesday after four female health workers were shot dead in the city, while another female worker was killed in an attack in Peshawar.
Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf on Tuesday condemned the attacks and praised the work of the polio vaccination teams, calling on regional authorities to guarantee their safety.
Wednesday is the final day of a three-day nationwide anti-polio drive – during which an estimated 5.2 million polio drops were to be administered.
There has been opposition to such immunisation drives in parts of Pakistan, particularly after a fake CIA hepatitis vaccination campaign helped to locate Osama Bin Laden in 2011.
Militants have kidnapped and killed foreign NGO workers in the past in an attempt to halt the immunisation drives, which they say are part of efforts to spy on them.
Afghanistan and Nigeria are the only other countries where polio is still endemic.
Pakistan is considered the key battleground in the global fight against the disease, which attacks the nervous system and can cause permanent paralysis within hours of infection.
Almost 200 children were paralysed in the country in 2011 – the worst figures in 15 years.
Earlier this year, the Global Polio Eradication Initiative warned that tackling the disease had entered “emergency mode” after “explosive” outbreaks in countries previously free of polio.
The World Health Organization (WHO) said polio was at a tipping point, with experts fearing it could “come back with a vengeance” after large outbreaks in Africa and Tajikistan and China’s first recorded cases for more than a decade.
Declaring polio a national emergency, the Pakistani government is targeting 33 million children for vaccination with some 88,000 health workers delivering vaccination drops.
Poliomyelitis has existed as long as human society, but became a major public health issue in late Victorian times with major epidemics in Europe and the United States. The disease, which causes spinal and respiratory paralysis, can kill and remains incurable but vaccines have assisted in its almost total eradication today.
This Egyptian stele (an upright stone carving) dating from 1403-1365BC shows a priest with a walking stick and foot, deformities characteristic of polio. The disease was given its first clinical description in 1789 by the British physician Michael Underwood, and recognised as a condition by Jakob Heine in 1840. The first modern epidemics were fuelled by the growth of cities after the industrial revolution.
In 1916, New York experienced the first large epidemic, with more than 9,000 cases and 2,343 deaths. The 1916 toll nationwide was 27,000 cases and 6,000 deaths. Children were particularly affected; the image shows child patients suffering from eye paralysis. Major outbreaks became more frequent during the century: in 1952, the US saw a record 57,628 cases.
In 1928, Philip Drinker and Louie Shaw developed the “iron lung” to save the lives of those left paralysed by polio and unable to breathe. Most patients would spend around two weeks in the device, but those left permanently paralysed faced a lifetime of confinement. By 1939, around 1,000 were in use in the US. Today, the iron lung is all but gone, made redundant by vaccinations and modern mechanical ventilators.
A major breakthrough came in 1952 when Dr Jonas Salk (L) began to develop the first effective vaccine against polio. Mass public vaccination programmes followed and had an immediate effect; in the US alone cases fell from 35,000 in 1953 to 5,300 in 1957. In 1961, Albert Sabin (R) pioneered the more easily administered oral polio vaccine (OPV).
Despite the availability of vaccines polio remained a threat, with 707 acute cases and 79 deaths in the UK as late as 1961. In 1962, Britain switched to Sabin’s OPV vaccine, in line with most countries in the developed world. There have been no domestically acquired cases of the disease in the UK since 1982.
By 1988, polio had disappeared from the US, UK, Australia and much of Europe but remained prevalent in more than 125 countries. The same year, the World Health Assembly adopted a resolution to eradicate the disease completely by the year 2000.
The WHO Americas region was certified polio free in 1994, with the last wild case recorded in the Western Pacific region (which includes China) in 1997. A further landmark came in 2002, when the WHO certified the European region polio-free.
In 2012, Polio remains officially endemic in four countries – Afghanistan, Nigeria, Pakistan and India, which is on the verge of being removed from the list having not had a case since January 2011. Despite so much progress, polio remains a risk with virus from Pakistan re-infecting China in 2011, which had been polio free for more than a decade.
Article source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-20779388#sa-ns_mchannel=rss&ns_source=PublicRSS20-sa
- Viagra patent Expires In Uk 2013
Good news for Polio sufferers who also suffer from Impotence.
Come 2013 the UK Viagra patent will expire.
But is it all good news?
Article Source: http://www.uk-med.co.uk/Health/Generic-Viagra-Good-or-Bad
- Polio vaccination in Nigeria – a series of unfortunate events
Nigeria has one of the world’s biggest populations of children but is lagging behind dramatically in immunisation. It is one of only three countries where polio is still endemic – the others are Afghanistan and Pakistan. In spite of huge efforts to reach every child, there were 108 cases last year – the year in which India managed to become polio-free.
And shockingly, fewer than half of its babies receive the routine and absolutely vital basic immunisation. Only 47% now get the DTP jabs, protecting them against diphtheria, tetanus and whooping cough. In a world where immunisation has risen right up the agenda and is considered a major tool in the fight to save more children’s lives, the DTP vaccination rate in Nigeria has actually dropped.
Why is this? Dr David Olayemi, senior programme adviser at Save the Children in Abuja, Nigeria, says part of the story is the unforeseen and unfortunate consequence of the mammoth effort under way to eradicate polio.
Speaking at the Gavi Partners Forum in Dar es Salaam, where donors, governments and NGOs working with the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunisation have gathered to review progress and plan for the future, Dr Olayemi explained how initiatives planned with the best of intentions had backfired.
“The primary health care system in Nigeria is very weak,” he said. But the polio eradication campaigns, now happening almost every month, empty the health facilities. “You need thousands of volunteers. A lot of the health workers get involved in that as monitors. A lot of them are salaried workers – but because of the incentive packages, they all go out for days and days, every month.”
These low-paid workers are getting extra cash for helping with the polio immunisation campaign, which is funded by a whole range of organisations from Rotary to the Gates Foundation to the Nigerian government. So the health centres are deserted and some children miss out on other immunisations that they need.
But there is another problem too, said Dr Olayemi, which one could perhaps call vaccination fatigue. The vaccinators put polio drops in the mouth of every small child they can find. Some children are immunised again and again, until the families cease to believe it does any good. And they then start refusing.
Mothers are given cards to show their child has been immunised, said Dr Olayemi, but some lose them and in other cases, the vaccinators refuse to accept them. It may not help that they are paid according to how many children they reach.
The vaccination strategy has to change, he says, to strengthen the primary healthcare system. The Gavi Alliance appears to think this is the way forward too – at a board meeting it agreed to get involved in the polio eradication effort, with a focus on integrating polio vaccination into the general baby vaccination programme and strengthening health systems to do that.
Dr Olayemi was speaking at the launch of a Save the Children report, which calls on Gavi to step up efforts to reach the last 20% of children across the developing world who are not getting routine immunisation. There has been impressive progress in reducing child mortality (12 million in 1990 to fewer than 7 million in 2011), which immunisation has helped to drive, it says.
But the 20% left behind are the poorest, most marginalised and hardest to reach, it says, and new strategies are needed. Vaccination services need to be part of a package of healthcare interventions within strengthened primary care centres – and also taken to the children through outreach clinics. The polio vaccination campaign is a response to what the WHO declared is a global emergency, but routine vaccination has to be a part of normal life.
Article source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/sarah-boseley-global-health/2012/dec/05/vaccines-polio
- Polio vaccination in Nigeria
Nigeria has one of the world’s biggest populations of children but is lagging behind dramatically in immunisation. It is one of only three countries where polio is still endemic – the others are Afghanistan and Pakistan. In spite of huge efforts to reach every child, there were 108 cases last year – the year in which India managed to become polio-free. And shockingly, less than half its babies receive the routine and absolutely vital basic immunisation. Only 47% now get the DTP jabs, protecting them against diptheria, tetanus and whooping cough. In a world where immunisation has risen right up the agenda and is considered a major tool in the fight to save more children’s lives, the DTP vaccination rate in Nigeria has actually dropped.
Why is this? Dr David Olayemi, senior programme advisor at Save the Children in Abuja, Nigeria, says that part of the story is the unforeseeen and unfortunate consequence of the mammoth effort underway to eradicate polio.
Speaking at the GAVI Partners Forum in Dar es Salaam, where donors, governments and NGOs working with the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunisation have gathered to review progress and plan for the future, Dr Olayemi explained how initiatives planned with the best of intentions had backfired.
“The primary health care system in Nigeria is very weak,” he said. But the polio eradication campaigns, now happening almost every month, empty the health facilities. “You need thousands of volunteers. A lot of the health workers get involved in that as monitors. A lot of them are salaried workers – but because of the incentive packages, they all go out for days and days, evey month.”
These low-paid workers are getting extra cash for helping with the polio immunisation campiagn, which is funded by a whole range of organisations from Rotary to the Gates Foundation to the Nigerian government. So the health centres are deserted and some children miss out on other immunisation they need.
But there is another problem too, said Dr Olayemi, which one could perhaps call vaccination fatigue. The vaccinators put polio drops in the mouth of every small child they can find. Some children are immunised again and again, until the families cease to believe it does any good. And they then start refusing.
Mothers are given cards to show their child has been immunised, said Dr Olayemi, but some lose them and in other cases, the vaccinators refuse to accept them. It may not help that they are paid according to how many children they reach.
The vaccination strategy has to change, he says, to strengthen the primary healthcare system. The GAVI Alliance appears to think this is the way forward too – at a board meeting it agreed to get involved in the polio eradication effort, with a focus on integrating polio vaccination into the general baby vaccination programme and strengthening health systems to do that.
Dr Olayemi was speaking at the launch of a new Save the Children report, which calls on GAVI to step up efforts to reach the last 20% of children across the developing world who are not getting routine immunisation. There has been impressive progress in reducing child mortality (12 million in 1990 to less than 7 million in 2011), which immunisation has helped to drive, it says.
But the 20% left behind are the poorest, most marginalised and hardest to reach, it says, and new strategies are needed. Vaccination services need to be part of a package of healthcare interventions within strengthened primary care centres – and also taken to the children through outreach clinics. The polio vaccination campaign is a response to what the WHO declared is a global emergency, but routine vaccination has to be a part of normal life.
Article source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/sarah-boseley-global-health/2012/dec/05/vaccines-polio
- Vaccine checks ‘to control polio’
26 November 2012
Last updated at 11:22
Fergus Walsh
Medical correspondentVaccination is key to controlling the disease
People from Nigeria, Pakistan and Afghanistan should not be allowed to leave their country unless they can show they have been vaccinated against polio, according to the body which monitors attempts to eradicate the disease.
A report from the Independent Monitoring Board (IMB) of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative says every time a child or adult from these three countries travels abroad, they risk carrying the polio virus with them.
Nigeria, Pakistan and Afghanistan are the only countries where polio remains endemic, which means transmission of the virus has never been stopped.
There has also been a handful of polio cases in Chad this year.
The report says all but 0.1% of polio has been eradicated globally: there have been 175 cases so far in 2012 compared to 350,000 in 1988.
The IMB says its target of stopping global polio transmission by the end of the year will clearly not be achieved.
And its report says there is a ‘significant risk’ of having more polio cases in 2013 than in 2012.
But the Board, which is chaired by Sir Liam Donaldson the former Chief Medical Officer for England, says there are reasons to be optimistic.
It cites India’s achievement in January 2012 of being free of polio for a year as a major landmark, which meant it was removed from the list of endemic countries.
Nigeria is the only country which has seen an increase in the number of cases this year.
Magic formula
The report concludes there is a ‘magic formula’ that is still missing in the affected countries, which it calls ‘absolute ownership’: this means parents demanding the vaccine for their children and local leaders grasping the challenge of wiping polio from their area.
It says: “Most of all ownership is about national pride: a country determined to be a vibrant 21st century nation, not one that is looked down on because it remains tainted by a disease that almost everywhere else in the world survives only in the memory of grandparents.”
Vaccine-derived polio virus
The live oral polio vaccine can, in extremely rare cases, cause the paralysing disease it is seeking to prevent and allow the virus to spread in the community.
The IMB says there have been 34 cases of circulating vaccine-derived polio virus this year in Nigeria, Democratic Republic of Congo, Kenya, Somalia and Pakistan.
The injectable vaccine used in Britain and other developed countries contains an inactivated, or killed poliovirus.
Article source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-20493540#sa-ns_mchannel=rss&ns_source=PublicRSS20-sa
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