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26 November
Rotary
International and Gates Foundation commit US$200 million to eradicate polio
"Eradicating polio will be one of the most significant public health
accomplishments in history, and we are committed to helping reach that goal"
- Bill Gates
Rotary
International and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF) announced today a
partnership to provide US$200 million for the intensified push to eradicate
polio. The BMGF has awarded the Rotary Foundation with one of its
largest-ever challenge grants of US$100 million, which Rotary will match
dollar-for-dollar over the coming three years.
The
exemplary leadership shown by Rotary International and the BMGF is a heartening
response to WHO Director-General Dr Margaret Chan's call for funds made at a
stakeholder consultation on polio eradication on 28 February. It is hoped
that this shared commitment will inspire and challenge other donors and
polio-affected countries themselves to ensure that the financial resources
necessary to eradicate polio once and for all are rapidly mobilized. More on the
announcement
and on the latest funding figures.
25
November
India-Pakistan
cricketers team up to "bowl out" polio
Children’s
mouths literally fell open when they lined up for their polio drops yesterday.
Instead of the usual volunteers, there to vaccinate them were celebrity cricket
players from
the national teams of India
and
Pakistan
.
India
and
Pakistan
– whose political differences are often in the news – share a common
passion for cricket and are among the four remaining countries which have never
stopped polio. The “Bowl Out Polio” campaign in
India
supports the government’s efforts to immunize children and is supported by
Rotary International, UNICEF and the National Polio Surveillance Project (NPSP),
a joint Government of India-WHO programme. To drive home the message that polio
should be eradicated and parents must immunise children repeatedly, cricket
players use opportunities such as the current cricket series between
India
and
Pakistan
, which are closely followed by millions of people in both countries.
Indian
cricket team captain Anil Kumble in a message said that good health was the
right of every child and polio took away that right. “We must stop polio if
children are to have this right,” he said. Kumble also said that home to
one-sixth of the world’s children,
India
had the largest number of children among the polio-endemic countries. “This
means that our children are at the greatest risk of contracting the virus,” he
said.
Partners
team up to bowl out polio: Players from the Indian cricket team backed by Gianni
Murzi of UNICEF (second from left in back row), Deepak Kapur of Rotary
International and
Hamid Jafari of NPSP. Photo: Omesh Matta/UNICEF
Pakistan
has reported 17 cases of polio this year, and
India
has reported 392 (as of 20 November). Both have seen a decline in cases over
the same period last year, particularly with regard to the more paralytic of the
two types of poliovirus, type 1.
As part of the campaign, cricketers have visited polio booths to immunise
children as part of their advocacy for polio eradication. Campaigning cricketers
include such stars as the Pakistan and Indian cricket captains – Shoaib Malik
and Anil Kumble – and top players from both sides such as Shoaib Akhtar and
Daanish Kaneri (Pakistan), Sachin Tendulkar, Yuvraj Singh, Saurav Ganguli and
Mahendra Singh Dhoni.
12 November
India
cricket
team aim to "Bowl Out Polio"
Celebrated
Indian cricket player R.P. Singh presented a "polio eradication" bat
to the Chief Minister of the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh at the close of a
match watched by 40,000 spectators and millions of television viewers. Signed by
the entire cricket team, the message on the bat read “We want to see the
children of India run and play. Let’s bowl out polio." Uttar Pradesh - R.
P. Singh's home state - is one of only two states in India that still has
endemic polio.
Indian
cricket team player R.P. Singh presents a
"Bowl Out Polio" cricket bat to the Chief Minister
Ms Mayawati of his home state of Uttar Pradesh.
As
part of the “Bowl Out Polio” campaign, three bats with polio eradication
messages have been signed by the Indian cricket team. While two of the bats are
for the chief ministers of the states of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, the third will
be presented to Union Health Minister Dr Ambumani Ramadoss at the launch of
the next polio round on November 25 during the cricket test match between India
and Pakistan at New Delhi.
The
“Bowl Out Polio” campaign was launched in 2003 by Rotary International, the
National Polio Surveillance Project, UNICEF and the Board for Control of Cricket
in India. Cricket is among the most popular sports in India. Some of the high
points of the campaign include the India-Pakistan series in 2004 when the
captains of the two sides ran with children holding “Bowl out Polio” banners
in Pakistan. The campaign has resonance in both cricket-obsessed countries. More
12 November
Wild
polivirus isolated in Switzerland's sewer system; insignificant risk of outbreak
The
Swiss public health authorities have reported the isolation of a wild poliovirus
from the sewage water of a Geneva city water treatment plant in a sample
collected on 13 August 2007. Due to high vaccination coverage and good
sanitation, this isolation does not represent a significant risk of outbreak for
Switzerland.
The
virus is genetically closely related to the ongoing polio transmission in Chad.
The Swiss authorities have taken measures appropriate for the detection of
poliovirus from environmental sampling, including heightened surveillance and
assessment of polio immunisation coverage of communities where the virus was
detected and in surrounding areas. No cases of paralytic polio have been
detected.
Similar
response measures were taken in Australia in July this year where wild
poliovirus was isolated from a Pakistani student who was infected and developed
polio in Pakistan, and in Singapore in 2006 where wild poliovirus was isolated
from a stool sample of a Nigerian child who was infected and developed polio in
Nigeria before travelling to Singapore. Neither additional cases nor wild-virus
positive contacts were found in either country.
05
November
India's last
bastion of polio at "tipping point"
The
world is on the brink of eradicating polio, but success depends largely on
stopping type 1 polio in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh.
In
2006 there were 338 cases of type-1 polio in the western part of Uttar Pradesh
state. By the end of September 2007, the core endemic area of the western part
of Uttar Pradesh state had been free of type-1 poliovirus for nine months. Never
before has the most virulent and most dangerous form of the disease disappeared
from its Indian heartland for such a long period. Only four type-1 polio cases
had been identified in the whole of western Uttar Pradesh by the end of
September 2007. In 2006, the key area had 338 cases.
Polio
is caused by poliovirus type-1, type-2 or type-3. Type-2 poliovirus was
eliminated worldwide in 1999.
“The
real challenge to global polio eradication is the persistence of type-1
transmission in western Uttar Pradesh,” said Dr Hamid Jafari, project manager
of the World Health Organization’s (WHO) National Polio Surveillance Project.
“If type-1 can be eliminated here, we can definitively say the war on polio
worldwide can be won”. More
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