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27 April
Afghanistan and Pakistan vaccinate over
40 million children against polio
 Two
of the four remaining countries which have never stopped polio vaccinated
over 40 million children between them this week.
The two countries share a
long border with regular travel and are
considered a single block of transmission for the poliovirus. Impressions of
the campaign can be downloaded from the WHO weekly podcast
episode of 27 April (polio story starts at 4:40 minutes).
Since the introduction of new tool – including more potent vaccines – and
new tactics in both countries in 2006, both appear to have stopped the bulk
of their indigenous polio. Authorities are now focusing on the inter-country
reservoirs, where access is complicated by security and population mobility,
among other factors. Stopping polio in these reservoirs requires careful
international coordination and real synchronization of activities at
borders, as well as concrete help to improve
safety, even temporarily. In both countries, vaccinators aim to reach all
children under the age of five: in Afghanistan, this means 7.3 million
children; in Pakistan, 33.5 million.
Only two other countries have never stopped polio – India and Nigeria, both
with larger populations and much more intense transmission of virus than
Afghanistan and Pakistan. In 2006, Afghanistan and Pakistan reported 31 and
40 cases of polio respectively; India and Nigeria had 674 and 1127
respectively. The independent advisory group to the global eradication
effort concluded last year that 2007 presents the best chance for
Afghanistan and Pakistan to be the next countries to stop poliovirus.
Afghanistan has had no cases of polio since November 2006.
The global drive to eradicate polio, which has reduced the number of polio
cases worldwide by over 99%, is predicated on reaching all children under
five years of age with oral polio vaccine multiple times.
21 April
Studies confirm cost-effectiveness of
polio eradication and greater efficacy of new oral polio vaccine
Leading
medical journal The Lancet published today two studies with important
implications for the Polio Eradication Initiative.
Read their press
release (in
PDF format)
Monovalent vaccine three times as effective as trivalent
A new study
by Imperial College shows that monovalent oral polio vaccine type 1 (mOPV1) is
three times more effective than trivalent OPV at protecting children against
type 1 polio in Uttar Pradesh, India. The study highlights that wide-scale use
of mOPV1 substantially raises the population immunity levels compared to the
same number of doses of trivalent OPV, improving the prospects of more rapidly
interrupting the remaining chains of endemic polio transmission.
India's
success in stopping polio now depends on further improving large-scale campaigns
in order to reach every child with mOPV1.
For more
details, see:
Eradicating polio cheaper in the long run
In the same
issue of The Lancet, a new study by Kim Thompson et al from Harvard
University demonstrates that effective control of polio (i.e., maintaining low
numbers of polio cases) would cost more in the long-term – both in human
suffering and dollars – than finishing eradication.
The study
also suggests that eradication is more cost-effective than other, lower-control
options (resulting in higher numbers of cases); additional research is under way
to model more fully these other options, including a reduction or halt to
supplementary immunization activities and the attendant human and financial
costs.
For further
information, please visit:
10 April
Indian
high-speed train delivers polio vaccine
On April 8, children in 17
districts of Bihar lined up for their two drops of oral polio vaccine.
On
April 5, that vaccine had been unloaded from the Rajdhani Express,
one of India's fastest trains, having travelled through several
states to get there on time. The express delivery was just one part
of India's intense efforts to stop polio in its two northern endemic
states.
During the planning stages leading up to the vaccination campaign,
medical officers in the state capital Patna alerted their colleagues
in other states that they were short of vaccine. Phone calls and
emails flew between staff of the National Polio Surveillance Project
(NPSP) and Rotary, partners in India's polio eradication efforts, to
find and deliver vaccine from other parts of the country. With the go-ahead from
and oversight of Dr. P. Biswal from the Government of India, the plan swung into action.
Rotary arranged for special permission from the
Union Railway Minister Laloo Prasad Yadav to transport 3.3 million doses from
Delhi, Haryana, Punjab and Uttar Pradesh on the high-speed Rajdhani Express. To
ensure that the vaccine arrived on time and at the necessary chilled
temperatures, NPSP staff monitored its packing and safe transportation along the
way.
At the same time, a Rotary-hired truck took 700,000 doses of vaccine
from Lucknow, in the neighbouring state of Uttar Pradesh, to Patna. The truck
was escorted and tracked by NPSP staff every step of the way, with surveillance
medical officers, drivers, and even janitors from the NPSP district offices all
pitching in to make sure the vaccine moved smoothly between district and state
borders. On Polio Sunday, as the immunization days are known in India, children
in Bihar had their polio doses ready for them.
3 April
Polio Eradication Initiative mourns the death of advisor Aileen Plant
It is with great sadness that the Global Polio Eradication Initiative bids farewell to one of its own, Dr Aileen Plant. Dr Plant passed away suddenly on 27 March, at Jakarta airport,
on her way home from a World Health Organization meeting.
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| Dr.
Aileen Plant is mourned by the polio eradication community, personally
and professionally. |
An Australian, Dr Plant was a world-renowned epidemiologist and public health leader. A respected lecturer, teacher and writer, she was considered a mentor by many in the international public health community.
In addition to her many roles in the global public health arena, Dr Plant was a member of the Advisory Committee on Polio Eradication (ACPE). The technical oversight body of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative, the ACPE benefited immensely from Dr. Plant's objective, straightforward and frank advice on polio eradication.
Aileen Plant exemplified the
best in public health service through her sense of duty, ethics, courage and
professionalism. "It is with profound sadness that we learnt of the sudden
passing of our dear colleague Dr Aileen Plant," said Professor Barry Schoub,
fellow ACPE member from Johannesburg. "She was a very warm, friendly,
compassionate, dedicated and insightful person, and she will be sorely missed.
Our thoughts go out to her family and friends who we hope will draw some comfort
from the esteem and high regard which her colleagues held for her."
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