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31 July 2009
RAWALPINDI, Pakistan, 31 July 2009
THROUGH the streets of Fauji Colony in Rawalpindi,
Punjab Province, Dr Mohamed Salem walks alongside volunteers carrying small
coolers filled with oral polio vaccine.
It’s a National Immunization Day for polio, a country-wide government
vaccination campaign supported by UNICEF and the World Health Organization
(WHO). Volunteers stop to look for pen marks on the little finger of every child
under the age of five to see if he or she has been vaccinated. If the mark is
absent, they administer the vaccine.
“The biggest challenge we face,” Dr. Saleem explains, “is to reach children who
are on the move.”
Full story.
28 July 2009
 Nationwide
polio vaccination begins in Afghanistan
Weeks before national elections
KABUL, Afghanistan, 28 July 2009—“It doesn’t hurt
at all,” says Mahamad, 5, smiling broadly, speaking of the oral polio
vaccine he is receiving. The boy lives in Kabul and is used to vaccinators
visiting his house. This particular visit is happening on the first day of a
three-day, nationwide polio vaccination campaign – the fourth of six such
immunization rounds planned for this year.
More
© UNICEF / Afghanistan/2009/Walther
17 July 2009
Cases rise in Nigeria of type 3 polio and type
2 circulating vaccine-derived poliovirus
In 2009, the northern states of Nigeria have
experienced a large polio outbreak due to wild poliovirus type 3 (WPV3) with 258
cases, compared to 32 cases for the same period in 2008. WPV3 from northern
Nigeria has this year spread internationally to Niger. Since February 2009,
there has also been an increasing number of polio cases due to a type 2
circulating vaccine-derived poliovirus (cVDPV2) in northern Nigeria (103 cases
to date in 2009 compared to 31 cases for the same period in 2008). Both
serotypes are at continued, and in the case of the cVDPV2 increasing, risk of
international spread. While the number of cVDPV2 cases is lower than WPV3 cases,
circulation of this serotype is of particular international concern as the last
case of polio due to a circulating wild poliovirus type 2 (WPV2) was in 1999.
More.
09 July 2009
G8 countries will work to complete polio
eradication
Declaration at L'Acquila Summit
THE SINGLE-LARGEST bloc of donors to the Global
Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI), the G8 countries issued a declaration
yesterday in which they stated their intention to "work towards completing the
task of polio eradication". The declaration, "Responsible leadership for a
sustainable future", noted progress made on polio. Indigenous wild poliovirus
has been restricted to a few reservoirs of transmission in four countries. The
leaders of the major economies of the world have historically provided over half
the funding of the GPEI. With these last reservoirs of poliovirus to wipe out
and with outbreaks of imported poliovirus in West Africa and the Horn of Africa,
however, continued financing and political support from G8 countries is
necessary to complete this global health goal.
The full declaration text (PDF)
More about donors to
the GPEI
9 July 2009
Fashion, flowers and polio eradication
Creativity marks fundraising to End Polio Now
From staging fashion shows to selling sunflower
seeds, Rotarians in many countries are showing their creative side to fill their
US $200 Million Challenge for polio eradication. The challenge is Rotary's
response to the $355 million in grants received from the Bill & Melinda Gates
Foundation. Rotary is committed to raising $200 million in matching funds by 30
June 2012.
In Switzerland, Rotarians in more than 200 cities and villages sold packets of
sunflower seeds on 13 September, National Day Against Child Paralysis, raising
more than $669,000 with support from the general public. Rotarians in one
Canadian town sponsored a Fashion Fights Polio show.
Around the world, the Rotary family raised about $90.7 million as of 23 June.
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