News

24 October 2009

World Polio Day

We're "this close" to eradicating polio

This October, some 162 million children are being vaccinated against polio, in countries from Guinea in west Africa to Nepal in south Asia. This month also marks 95 years since the birth of Jonas Salk, developer of the first safe and effective polio vaccine. Polio survivors and eradication advocates across the globe commemorate 24 October as World Polio Day in his honour.

Polio has been reduced worldwide by 99% since 1988, following the global push to eradicate the poliovirus spearheaded by national governments and the Global Polio Eradication Initiative, using oral polio vaccine, developed by Albert Sabin. The virus now survives in parts of four countries, where it is the subject of intense eradication activities.

As part of a US$ 355 million challenge grant awarded to Rotary by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Rotary clubs worldwide are aiming to raise a total of US$ 200 million by 2012. The funding will provide critical support to polio eradication activities, including the distribution of a new, more effective bivalent polio vaccine that was recently approved for use in the coming months.

On World Polio Day, Rotarians worldwide are concocting innovative fundraising ideas and activities to remind the world that help is still needed in the fight against polio.

Events include benefit screenings of the Oscar-nominated documentary "The Final Inch" and campaigns to make donations over the mobile phone. Rotarians are hawking a book of jokes, with profits going to End Polio Now. They are congregating in their town centres soliciting donations from passers-by. Many are participating in ""We walk so they may walk"-type walking or running events, referring to the lifelong paralysis that polio can cause. In one Rotary Club, walkers are competing in costume to "Scare away polio".

Rotary has more. And for updates, follow World Polio Day on Twitter and Facebook.

16 October

How many children did we vaccinate?

Getting real-time campaign coverage data

The Global Polio Eradication Initiative is implementing new approaches to improve the quality and impact of eradication strategies. One critical step is to obtain complete and rapid data on Supplementary Immunization Activities (SIAs), so that mid-course corrections can be made if any gaps are found.

To this end, the GPEI is exploring the feasibility of consolidating internationally-available independent monitoring data within 10-14 days of an SIA. The WHO Regional Office for Africa has seized the opportunity of the recent campaigns in west Africa for this pilot. The report focuses on six countries of west Africa which are currently experiencing an outbreak following importation of wild poliovirus of Nigerian origin.

While some of the low numbers of missed children demonstrate that refinements are needed, the basic elements of a real-time independent monitoring report are present. These include the number and source of independent monitors, the number of children monitored, the percentage whose fingers were marked to prove they were vaccinated and the proportion of districts monitored.

Once reviewed, adjusted and endorsed by the Advisory Committee on Poliomyelitis Eradication in November, this process will be adapted for scale-up beyond the pilot phase. Real-time, independent monitoring data will reliably answer the question, "How many children did we reach with vaccine?" and allow course corrections rapidly to cover missing children and stop polio transmission more swiftly.

Full report (PDF)

13 October 2009

No child should be missed: Zardari
Pakistan President calls on all tiers of Government to support immunization campaigns.

PAKISTAN President Asif Ali Zardari has called on the country's provincial and district-level leadership to ensure that no child under five in Pakistan is missed in polio immunization campaigns.

Speaking at the launch of the most recent nationwide immunization days on Saturday, 10 October,

"Polio continues to threaten our children (but) our aim is to make Pakistan completely polio-free," President Zardari said. "We aim that no child lives in the fear of being crippled for life."

At the event, President Zardari announced the appointment of his youngest daughter, Aseefa Bhutto Zardari, as Ambassador of the polio eradication campaign. Aseefa's mother, the late Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, launched the Polio Eradication Initiative in 1994 - by immunizing Aseefa, who has now accepted the baton to pursue her mother's vision.

President Zardari, who launched the NIDs by administering oral polio vaccine to several children on the stage, said his late wife had been firmly committed to improving the social sector - "particularly the health of children".

"She was the first prime minister to have personally administered polio drops to a Pakistani child," President Zardari said. "That child was our own daughter, Aseefa Bhutto Zardari. Together, she will work with you to end polio."

Aseefa, who schools in Scotland, was unable to attend the launch but in a message read out to the assembled officials, which included all four provincial Chief Ministers and the Ministers of the Interior, Communications, Education and Religious Affairs, expressed her determination to pursue the mission of her mother. "I feel a special responsibility towards eradicating polio from the country," she wrote. "Together we will end polio in her (Benazir Bhutto's) honour and in her memory."

Rotary International Polio Committee Chairman Dr Robert S. Scott, who last month flew to Islamabad to award President Zardari a Champion Award for his leadership and dedication in supporting a polio-free world, took the stage to commend Pakistan's efforts towards eradication.

To mark Aseefa's appointment, a 5 Rupees stamp featuring the photograph of Mrs Bhutto immunizing her youngest daughter has been commissioned by the Pakistan Ministry of Postal Services and distributed through 13,000 post offices across Pakistan.

At the National Immunization Days to be held from 12-14 October, 34 million children under five will be immunized with trivalent oral polio vaccine. In 1994, an estimated 23,000 Pakistani children were paralysed or killed by polio. This year, until the end of September, 58 cases of polio have been reported countrywide.

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has launched a multi-year awareness campaign to highlight the extraordinary success of the U.S. government's efforts to improve health around the world.

The Living Proof Project aims to show that U.S. investments in global health are working, against polio and other vaccine-preventable diseases, against malaria and AIDS -- saving and improving the lives of millions of people -- and as a result, empowering them to lead more productive lives. The campaign kicked off with a new web site and advertisements in the US capital that highlight compelling success stories in global health.

"We want to show Americans that their investments in global health are working," said Bill Gates, co-chair of the Gates Foundation. "We should all be proud that U.S.-funded health programs are saving millions of lives and bringing new hope to poor and developing countries."

Polio is singled out in a progress sheet and an infographic mapping the decline in endemic countries.

Nigerian journalists join forces

In 2007, a group of journalist from Kaduna state, an important regional media hub in northern Nigeria, joined forces and launched the Journalists Initiative on Immunization Against Polio (JAP). The aim: to create public awareness on polio eradication, through the provision of accurate and balanced information, while mobilizing fellow journalists to report positively about the benefits of immunization.

Since then, JAP has grown into a network across the north, operating chapters in an additional six high-risk states: Bauchi, Jigawa, Kano, Niger, Sokoto and Zamfara. This year, a national chapter has been inaugurated in Abuja.

Holding town hall style meetings with elected officials, traditional and religious leaders, as well as concerned parents these journalists have been providing an enormous and as yet unheralded service to their communities. Dozens of stories have been written, interviews with prominent community leaders supporting polio have been aired and Nigerian caregivers are increasingly educated on the true dangers of polio and the best ways they can protect their children.

Those who most effectively advocated for an end to polio in their communities or wrote or broadcast the best polio news stories were rewarded earlier this year at the inaugural JAP Health Performance Awards.

The wives of the Honourable Chairmen from Jema'a, Makarfi, and Sabon Gari local governments received recognition for their work in promoting the importance of childhood immunization and polio eradication. While journalists Illiya Kure (Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria) , Samuel Aruwan (Leadership Newspapers), Goddy Isenyo (Lawal Compass Newspapers), Dogara and Ibrahim Yakubu (Deutsche Welle) were also honoured for excellence in health reporting.