|
Somalia once again polio-free, declares UN health agency
Accra, March 26, Ghanadot/GNA - In what
is being described as a major victory in the global fight
against polio, the United Nations health agency announced on
Tuesday that the disease has been eradicated in strife-torn
Somalia thanks to the efforts of some 10,000 volunteers and
health workers across the Horn of Africa nation.
“Against a backdrop of widespread conflict, large population
movements and a dearth of functioning government
infrastructure, transmission of poliovirus in the country
has been successfully stopped,” the UN World Health
Organization (WHO) said in a news release received in Accra
on Wednesday.
The release said Somalia had not reported a case of polio
since March 2007, a major landmark in the intensified
eradication effort launched last year to eradicate the
disease in a few remaining countries, according to the
Global Polio Eradication Initiative, which is spearheaded by
national governments, WHO, Rotary International, the United
States Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and
the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF).
It said innovative approaches tailored to conflict areas
were being credited for stopping polio – which can cause
lifelong paralysis – in the country, including increased
community involvement and the effective use of monovalent
vaccines to immunize children in insecure areas with several
doses, within a short period of time.
More than 10,000 Somali volunteers and health workers
repeatedly vaccinated more than 1.8 million children under
the age of five by visiting every household in every
settlement multiple times.
“Somalia shows that when communities are engaged, children
everywhere can be reached,” stated Dr. Maritel Costales,
Senior Health Advisor, UNICEF New York.
Somalia, which has not had a functioning national government
in almost two decades, had already eradicated the disease in
2002 but became re-infected in 2005 by poliovirus
originating in Nigeria.
“This truly historic achievement shows that polio can be
eradicated everywhere, even in the most challenging and
difficult settings,” said Dr Hussein A Gezairy, Regional
Director for WHO’s Office for the Eastern Mediterranean.
Following a 20-year global effort, the disease has been
stopped nearly everywhere in the world with the exception of
the remaining four polio-endemic countries – Afghanistan,
India, Nigeria and Pakistan.
Stable funding is critical to continuing global eradication
efforts.
Some $525 million is urgently needed for 2008-2009 to fight
the disease in the remaining endemic areas and protect
children in high-risk polio-free.
GNA
|
