 POTENT new vaccine poised to accelerate
progress towards a polio-free world is expected
to be launched in India in November.
Bivalent oral polio vaccine (bOPV) - which
simultaneously targets the two remaining types of wild
poliovirus in the world - is at least 30% more eff ective
than the traditional trivalent polio vaccine and has
been recommended by the Advisory Committee on
Poliomyelitis Eradication (ACPE) for immediate use.
Of the three wild polioviruses, types 1 and 3 continue
to circulate, while type 2 has not been seen since 1999.
However, the oral vaccines available to fi ght polio have,
until now, been limited to the traditional trivalent oral
polio vaccine (tOPV), which tackles all three serotypes
but at a lower potency, or the monovalent oral polio
vaccines (mOPV1 or mOPV3) - a potent tool but one
which can only tackle one type at a time.
A clinical field trial in India this year compared the new
bivalent vaccine with the existing vaccines and for
both types 1 and 3 polio, the new bivalent vaccine was
clearly superior to the old trivalent vaccine, and almost
as good as mOPV1 or mOPV3, yet in a package that
could deliver them concurrently.
At its June review of the vaccine, the ACPE concluded
that the use of bivalent vaccine in Supplementary
Immunization Activities (SIAs) constituted an
“important new tool” for the GPEI. |
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Dr. Bruce Aylward,
Director of WHO’s Polio Eradication Initiative, agreed,on the basis it combined the impact of the higher-titre
monovalent
vaccines with the logistical advantage of
only having to deliver a single
product to tackle both
serotypes. “It’s developments like this that have the
potential to transform the polio eradication eff ort,” Dr.
Aylward said. “We’ll introduce it later this year and then
evaluate the results, but we’re excited about it.”
Wild poliovirus types 1 and 3 continue to circulate
concurrently in all four of the remaining endemic
countries - Nigeria, India, Pakistan and Afghanistan. |
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The strategic advantage of bivalent vaccine offers different benefits in each of them. In
Afghanistan, for instance, the incidence
of type 1 polio this year is 20 times more
prevalent than type 3. In this context, bOPV
could help to maintain immunity against
type 3 while continuing to target type 1. Whereas in
Nigeria, where the incidence of type 3 is widespread,
but the number of type 1 cases continues to fall, that
advantage is reversed. Or in countries at high risk of
importation along the wild poliovirus importation
belt of sub-Saharan Africa, bOPV will help to optimize
population immunity to both types. |
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 N HIS historic address to the Muslim world
on 4 June, watched by millions around the
globe, US President Barack Obama highlighted polio
and his hopes to work closely with the Organization
of the Islamic Conference (OIC) to achieve eradication.
“Today I am announcing a new global eff ort with
the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) to
eradicate polio,” President Obama said. “All these things
must be done in partnership.”
Of the four countries where endemic polio survives, three
are members of the OIC. Furthermore, 10 of 15 countries
that have reported polio re-infections in 2009 are OIC members. |
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In July, the OIC Secretary-General Professor Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu underlined the Organization’s
commitment to polio eradication by writing letters to
the Presidents of Nigeria, Pakistan and Afghanistan,
thanking them for their commitment to the eradication
eff ort and requesting intensifi ed support from all levels
of the Government. He also contacted the esteemed
International Islamic Fiqh Assembly and requested the
religious scholars issue a Fatwa recommending that all
Muslim communities support the polio eradication eff ort
and immunize all their children against polio.
U.S. President Barack Obama and OIC Secretary-General Prof.
E. Ihsanoglu join efforts to eradicate polio. |
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 homas R. Frieden has been appointed the
new Director of the US Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta, USA, by
President Barack Obama.
Dr. Frieden joined CDC in June this year from the
New York City Department of Health and Mental
Hygiene, where he served as Commissioner since
January 2002. He worked for CDC from 1990-2002
- including working in India with the national
tuberculosis control efforts - and has training in
internal medicine, infectious diseases, public health,
and epidemiology. Within weeks of starting at CDC,
Dr. Frieden demonstrated his commitment to polio
by sending an email to all CDC staff, appealing for
staff to join the Stop Transmission of Polio (STOP)
program. “The polio eradication initiative requires
additional qualified public health experts in the
field to achieve success,” Dr. Frieden wrote. “I
strongly encourage qualified staff to apply and for
supervisors to permit their participation as team
Dr. Thomas Frieden. |
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members in the
Enhanced STOP
Initiative. Thank
you for your
continued support of CDC’s efforts to help
eradicate polio,”
he concluded.
- Steve Stewart/
CDC |
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| Independent Evaluation team members meet with traditional and religious leaders in Gusau, Zamfara State. Photo: Thomas Moran. |
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HE Independent Evaluation of the Major
Barriers to Interrupting Polio Transmission
is well underway, with team leaders expected to
present their recommendations to the Oversight
Committee at the end of September. Four fullyconstituted
sub-teams have travelled to the
remaining endemic countries - Afghanistan, India,
Nigeria, and Pakistan - with a fifth team considering
issues relating to wild poliovirus’ international
spread.
The evaluation, requested by WHO’s Executive Board
in January, has been charged with identifying areaspecific
solutions to the barriers to interrupting polio
transmission in each country.
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The teams have met with Ministry of Health and
other government representatives, WHO, UNICEF
and partner agencies, as well as relevant security
and aid organization staff. In Afghanistan, the teams
visited the polio-infected Jalalabad and Kandahar
districts; in India, they travelled to Uttar Pradesh and
Bihar states, visiting Ghaziabad, Patna and Khagaria
districts (where they stayed overnight on the Kosi
River embankment). In Nigeria the team visited
Zamfara and Kano States, while in Pakistan, the focus
was on Karachi, Lahore and Peshawar.
The Evaluation Report will lead to area-specific action
plans which will be incorporated into the 2010-2014
Global Polio Eradication Initiative Strategic Plan. |
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 lobal health policy-makers attending this
year’s World Health Assembly (WHA) in
May called for more rapid progress against polio,
warning that the prospect of an influenza pandemic
and the world financial crisis could not be allowed
to threaten the goal of attaining a polio-free
world. Ministers of health expressed “impatience”
(in the words of one delegate) at the continued
transmission of polio in northern Nigeria and its
international spread. Delegates warned that the
opportunity to stop polio could be “squandered”
unless local officials in the remaining affected
countries were held accountable to achieving highquality
vaccination campaigns. |
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HE Ministry of Health of the Kingdom
of Saudi Arabia has again demanded
that pilgrims travelling to Mecca for the Hajj be
vaccinated against polio. The Hajj draws up to three
million pilgrims and is due to take place in late
November this year.
To protect public health, pilgrims from Nigeria, |
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Pakistan, Afghanistan, India and Sudan must prove
they have had a polio vaccination at least six weeks
prior to travel and will be automatically vaccinated
on arrival in the Kingdom, regardless of age. For
pilgrims from re-infected countries, such as Kenya or
Burkina Faso, all children under 15 must prove they
have been vaccinated against polio, and will then
receive another immunization on arrival. |
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| An Indian pilgrim is immunized against polio. Photo: NPSP |
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 HEN sustained military conflict in Pakistan’s
Swat valley caused more than a million
people to flee their homes, the polio program had to
sweep into action. The children of Swat had not been
vaccinated for more than a year, with access practically
impossible due to the security situation, raising the
spectre that fleeing internally displaced children would
carry polio out of the Swat valley into uninfected areas.
Several transit posts were quickly set up to immunize
children along the key civilian routes out of Swat, while
mobile immunization teams went tent to tent in the
camps for the internally displaced. During the conflict,
more than 139,000 previously unimmunized children
received polio drops. A further 94,285 IDP children
were immunized during the July campaign, |
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either on
the roads back to their homes, in camps or with host families, and in the August immunization activity,
36,980 children were immunized.
In other news, the Pakistan Control Cell continued to
go from strength to strength, with Pakistan’s leading
TV station, Geo TV, joining the 10 TV channels and
other FM radio stations in promoting and monitoring
National Immunization Days. The control cell handled
more than 12,000 calls in the August 2009 campaign
from across all four provinces, making it possible for
health authorities to vaccinate more than 23,000
missed children. Meanwhile, the Mobilink mobile
phone operator agreed to send out millions of text
messages supporting the immunization days. And
in July, polio was named as the theme of the First
National Health Media |
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Awards - a result of the 2,560
print articles and 3,000 TV and radio reports that covered the polio eradication effort in 2008 - clearly the
largest number for any social sector issue in Pakistan’s
history.
On an operational level, the Islamabad, Lahore
and Peshawar police forces joined their National
Highways and Motorways colleagues in setting up
tollway checkpoints to immunize children. This kind
of government support can only start at the top, and
in August, Rotary’s Polio Committee Chairman Robert
Scott awarded Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari the
“Polio Eradication Champion Award” for his leadership
and dedication to a polio-free world.
- Christian Moen/Unicef |
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NDIAN Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh
has expressed “anguish” over a recent spurt
in polio cases in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar and has set
aside US$657 million for an all-out assault on the virus
from 2010-2012. Speaking at a meeting of the Cabinet
Committee on Economic Affairs, Dr. Singh directed the
Union Health and Family Welfare Ministry to ensure
“very close” monitoring of India’s two polio hotbeds.
Home Minister P. Chidambaram stressed it was
unacceptable that children were still being afflicted
with polio. “The medicines are there. Why should the
children not get them? (Because) there are gaps in the
delivery mechanism.” |
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The India Expert Advisory Group has recommended the
country undertake six National Immunization Days,
nine Sub-National Immunization Days and 40 mop-up
rounds across the next three years.
Pulse Polio Immunisation (PPI), started in India in
1995-96, is the world’s largest single public health
intervention, with 172 million children immunized
during each national immunization activity.
A vaccinator leaves the tell-tale markings of polio
immunization in Uttar Pradesh, the epicentre of polio in
India. Photo: Richard Wainwright/Jersey Rotary |
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| n the last 10 days of May, an extraordinary
222,270,331 children in 22 countries across Asia
and Africa were vaccinated against polio. This included
more than 74 million children in 11 west African
countries immunized by 400,000 polio vaccinators in
a synchronized response to a wild poliovirus outbreak
from northern Nigeria that has swept as far westwards
as Guinea. |
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Regular co-ordinated campaigns against poliovirusappear to be working - as of 31 August, no cases ofwild poliovirus had been recorded since May in Kenya, Uganda, Benin, Burkina Faso, Mali, Niger, Ghana or Togo. |
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Dr. Mohamed Wahdan (centre) is flanked by Pakistan Polio Team
Leader Dr. Ni’ma Abid (left) and WHO Polio Eradication Initiative
Director Dr. Bruce Aylward. |
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HE “father” of polio eradication in the Eastern
Mediterranean Region, Dr. Mohamed Helmy
Wahdan, has retired after three decades of superb
service to the eradication effort.
The Special Advisor for Polio Eradication to the
Regional Director at WHO’s Eastern Mediterranean
Regional Office in Egypt since 1998, Dr. Wahdan has
been instrumental in the fight against polio and
communicable diseases at WHO since 1979, with his
unfailing example of hard work, attention to detail and
demand for excellence.
Under Dr. Wahdan’s leadership, indigenous
transmission of polio was successfully interrupted
in all but two countries in the region; he trained |
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and mentored numerous polio eradication staff
worldwide. Staff can still benefit from his personal and
professional guidance as he continues to work with
polio in an advisory role.
Dr. Steve Cochi, Senior Advisor to the Global
Immunization Division at CDC, said no single
individual had had such a “massive influence across
the eradication initiative for so long”. “Dr. Wahdan
has that rare combination of extensive experience,
expert technical knowledge and wisdom, which was
an exceptional plus for the program,” Dr. Cochi said.
“We wish him and his family all the best and are
just grateful that we continue to have the possibility
to draw on his wisdom and experience post-retirement.” |
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| N outbreak of polio has aff ected nine west African
countries since the middle of last year. The outbreak
has eff ectively occurred in two waves, the fi rst aff ecting Benin,
Burkina Faso, Ghana, Mali and Togo in mid-2008/early 2009;
and the second aff ecting Côte d’Ivoire, Guinea, Liberia and
Sierra Leone. The maps show the two distinct waves, with wild
poliovirus moving westwards. |
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First wave: Benin, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Mali, and Togo
(01 June 2008 to 31 May 2009) |
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most recent cases occurring in this block of countries had onset
of paralysis in May (in Burkina Faso) and early August (in Mali).
All of the countries aff ected by the fi rst wave of the outbreak
have conducted multiple response rounds using mOPV1. Benin,
Burkina Faso, and Mali have plans for a further round before
the end of 2009. |
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Second wave: Côte d’Ivoire, Guinea, Liberia and Sierra
Leone (01 June to 08 September 2009) |
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The second wave in the outbreak is relatively recent, and the
first response rounds were not carried out until mid-year.
The countries aff ected in this second wave are therefore still
experiencing signifi cant transmission, particularly Côte d’Ivoire,
Guinea, and Liberia.
By October all of these countries will have conducted a
minimum of four rounds with mOPV1. Achieving good quality
rounds would end all the outbreaks in West Africa before the
end of 2009. |
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 UCH is written about vaccine-derived polioviruses (VDPVs) and their
implications to the global polio eradication eff ort. But what exactly is a
VDPV? And what do they mean to both the pre-eradication era - ie, now - and posteradication?
To understand, one should look fi rst at how a wild poliovirus (WPV)
behaves.
When a child is infected by a WPV, the virus replicates in the child’s intestine, and
then enters the bloodstream through cells lining the intestine, where it can spread
to the spinal cord and cause paralysis. The virus is also excreted during this period,
and may spread to other children in the community, particularly in areas with poor
sanitation. If a suffi cient number of children are fully immunized against polio, this
WPV is unable to fi nd susceptible children to infect, and dies out.
Immunization with oral polio vaccine (OPV) occurs in much the same manner.
OPV is a vaccine which contains a live, attenuated (weakened) vaccine-virus.
When a child is immunized with OPV, the weakened vaccine-virus also replicates
in the intestine (developing immunity by building up antibodies in the intestine)
before entering the child’s bloodstream through cells lining the intestine (further
developing immunity by building up antibodies in the blood stream). Like wild
poliovirus, the vaccine-virus is also excreted during this period. Importantly, as it
is excreted, this vaccine-virus is no longer the same as the vaccine-virus originally
contained in the OPV dose, as it genetically alters from its original form during
replication in the inestine of the vaccine recipient. The excreted vaccine-virus can
spread in the immediate community - this was thought in the past to have been
benefi cial in some settings to ‘passively’ immunize other children. Once it no longer
finds unimmunized children, this vaccine-virus rapidly dies out. |
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| Circulating VDPVs: Causing cases in areas where populations are under-immunized |
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On very rare occasions, if a population is seriously under-immunized, an excreted
vaccine-virus can continue to fi nd susceptable children and begins to circulate
beyond the immediate household contacts of a vaccine recipient and into the
broader community, for an extended period of time. The longer it is allowed to
survive and be transmitted in this way, the more genetic changes it undergoes as
it replicates. Circulating VDPVs (cVDPVs) are viruses that have gone through this
process.
Circulating VDPV episodes are rare. Over the past 10 years, more than 10 billion
doses of OPV have been administered to more than two billion children, preventing
more than 3.5 million polio cases. In that same period, only 12 cVDPV episodes are
known to have occurred, resulting in 362 VDPV cases. |
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| Circulating VDPVs must be managed in the same manner as WPV outbreaks.
However, the easiest cure remains prevention: a fully immunized community is
protected against both WPVs and VDPVs. And once wild polioviruses have been
successfully eradicated, OPV must be phased out, as the public health benefi ts of
OPV will no longer outweigh the small risk of its continued use. |
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- Oliver Rosenbauer/WHO |
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| Persons receiving OPV usually clear the vaccine-virus contained in OPV from
their digestive system within a period of 6-8 weeks. However, on very rare
occasions, VDPVs are detected in persons with primary immunodefi ciency
conditions who have sub-optimal ability or no ability to produce antibodies.
In such individuals, the vaccine-virus sometimes does not clear, and VDPVs
are excreted for extended periods of time. This is known as an iVDPV
(immunodefi ciency-associated excretion of VDPVs). These events are even
rarer than cVDPVs, as they have been observed in only 42 individuals with rare
immune defi ciency disorders and in most instances, the VDPVs cleared naturally
within six months of detection. Three immunodefi cient persons, however, have
shown ‘chronic’ excretion of VDPVs, defi ned as excretion for as long as fi ve years
or more. |
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 IGERIA is battling a circulating vaccine-derived
type-2 poliovirus which has clearly shown that
the coverage of routine immunization with trivalent oral
polio vaccine in Nigeria’s northern states has been poor.
Circulation of this serotype is of particular international
concern as the last case of polio due to wild poliovirus type 2
(WPV2) was in 1999. In response to the cVDPVs, and an increase
in wild poliovirus type 3 (WPV3), Nigeria has conducted polio
supplementary immunization activities (SIAs) with trivalent
OPV, nationwide in May and covering most of the
country in August. |
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The rise in cVDPV cases in early 2009 is in
direct contrast to the decline of type 1
wild poliovirus. In 2008, Nigeria was
experiencing a large outbreak of type 1
wild poliovirus. As this serotype is
considered the most dangerous
of the three serotypes due to its
higher paralytic attack rate and
propensity for international
spread. Eff orts in 2008 focused on
targeting this serotype during SIAs,
with signifi cant results. In fact,
in the high-risk northern states of
Kano, Kaduna, Katsina and Jigawa,
no type 1 cases have been reported
in the past six months. By 25 August,
Nigeria had recorded 70 cases of type 1 polio,
compared with 547 cases during the same period in 2008. |
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Photo: Tadej Žnidarčič |
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| HO’s Western Pacific Region has not
only stayed free of wild poliovirus since
certification in October 2000 but has now identified
all wild poliovirus materials stored in biomedical
laboratories. This is the important other half of polio
eradication.
All 37 countries in the Region have completed surveys
of relevant biomedical laboratories and established
national inventories of existing stored poliovirus.
They have documented their results in standardized
quality assurance reports which have been presented
to the Regional Commission for the Certification |
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of Poliomyelitis Eradication in the Western Pacific (RCC).
The process was not without its challenges: countries
like China and Japan had to deal with huge numbers
of laboratories under the jurisdiction of a large range
of government agencies other than the Ministry of
Health. Other countries had to identify the best ways
to appropriately involve the private and educational
sector (e.g. Australia, Philippines).
However, with final reports received from China
and Japan at the end of 2008, the RCC has declared
Phase 1 of Wild Poliovirus Laboratory Containment
complete for the whole of the Western Pacific Region. |
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In total, 77,260 laboratories were included in the
survey - of these, just 45 currently store relevant
materials (27 in China, 15 in Japan, two in Australia
and one in the Republic of Korea).
The RCC has now requested that all countries provide
a national containment focal point to maintain the
national database and inventory and prepare for
Phase 2 requirements, which come into effect one
year after wild poliovirus is eradicated worldwide
- Dr. Sigrun Roesel/WHO Western Pacific Region |
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T wasn't a pretty picture: Abbas Nagar’s unpaved dirt streets were lined
with open drains, clogged with human refuse, and when it rained, the filth
ran in rivers down the streets.
These rural residents of Aligarh, Uttar Pradesh, complained but no one came to build
new streets - in fact, the only people who came were the monthly polio vaccination
teams. So the residents complained to the visiting vaccination teams - what else
where they to do? - and as time passed and
resentment built, the residents eventually did
the one thing they could do: they refused to
allow their children to be vaccinated in protest.
The Global Polio Eradication Initiative had
a problem: if too many households refused
vaccination, the immunization activity would
be rendered useless, with insufficient community immunity to prevent an outbreak.
But the biggest problem was the drains themselves.
UNICEF tackled the issue, setting up the Urban Sanitation and Hygiene Action
(USHA) Project, which identified Moradabad, Firozabad and Aligarh for targeted
interventions to improve a range of civic amenities.
First it met with the Municipal Offices, underlining the significance of improved
environmental sanitation. |
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Cleanliness awareness drives were formulated, with
drains cleaned, streets swept, and garbage gathered and removed by the 180 newly
hired sanitary staff of the Municipality of Aligarh Nagar Nigam.
In 45 high-risk areas for polio eradication, a network of Community Sanitation
Mobilizers was created to strengthen and monitor the efforts of the sanitation
workers. They also travelled with the
Polio Block Mobilization Coordinators
to motivate people to be immunized,
with the result being that the number of
resistant households in Aligarh fell from
350 in March 2008 to just over 100 today.
The USHA project clearly shows that an
integrated approach to health, environmental sanitation and hygienic practices in
high-risk polio areas increases the number of children permitted to be vaccinated,
and drastically reduces the risk of the spread of poliovirus. It’s a gift that keeps on
giving: the streets and lanes are clean, the drains are clear, the children healthier,
and wild poliovirus has nowhere to run and hide.
- India Communication Update, Polio/UNICEF, with Rod Curtis/WHO |
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n the final push to rid the world of polio,
Rotary International has this year raised
US$ 90.7 million towards its “US$200 Million
Challenge”. Rotary Foundation Trustee Chair Jonathan
Majiyagbe announced the impressive figure to
an audience of 18,000 Rotary members at the
organization’s annual convention in Birmingham,
England in July.
The funds are part of the US$200 million Rotary
aims to raise to match the US$350 million Challenge
Grant awarded to Rotary by the Bill & Melinda Gates
Foundation – a funding agreement that will provide
US$555 million to the Global Polio Eradication
Initiative within the next three years.
Rotarians have employed a wide range of innovative
fundraising ideas to raise the money. In Switzerland,
more than 200 cities and villages sold packets of
sunflower seeds on the National Day Against Child
Paralysis, raising more than US $669,000. Among
hundreds of varied community fundraisers, country
focus evenings, raffles, PolioPlus walks, marathons
and fashion shows have been held across the globe,
reflecting Rotary’s tireless commitment to this
cause. |
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UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is presented with the Polio Eradication Champion Award by Rotary International President DK Lee and Rotary Foundation Trustee Chair Jonathan Majiyagbe.
Photo: Rotary International |
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UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, who delivered
a keynote address at the Rotary Convention, said
“Rotary’s vision of a polio-free world is in sharp focus”.
Mr Majiyagbe stressed that Rotarians needed to
think outside the box to raise the resources necessary to finally end polio. |
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“ We can’t wait until
the economic conditions improve to continue our
fight,” he said. “We must move ahead now,” he
added, urging the development of “fundraisers that
involve the whole community”.
- Petina Dixon-Jenkins/Rotary |
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| wo children who acted to help rid the world
of polio received thunderous applause at
the Rotary International Convention. Anna Zanotti,
a 10-year-old from Mantova, Italy, raised US$164 in
two days when she collected donations for polio in a
recycled chocolate box as a fifth-grade class project.
“I thought of how many children like me I could save
with my money,” said Anna. She and her |
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classmates thought of the donations in terms of actual lives, each
represented by the 60 cents it costs to immunize a child.
“Imagine a chocolate box that contains so many lives,”
she said.
Joshua Kim, a 14-year-old from Northbrook, Illinois,
USA, gained a standing ovation when it was revealed
that after reading an article on polio eradication |
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in The Rotarian, he decided to donate his entire life savings
of $1,200 - seven years of weekly allowance and money
earned from neighbourhood jobs - to the effort. “I
wanted to be part of that effort because Rotary is so
very close to eradicating it,” Joshua said.
Arnold Grahl/Rotary |
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| G8 leaders meeting in L’Aquila, Italy in July,
committed to “work towards completing the task
of polio eradication”. Individual country (plus the
European Commission) contributions to polio
eradication since 2006 summarized in the G8
Accountability Report ( http://www.g8italia2009.it/static/G8_Allegato/G8_Preliminar y_Accountability_Report_8.7.09,0.pdf ) highlight
stark differences in levels of financing between
countries. The United States, United Kingdom,
Germany and Canada are leading the way in
confirming additional financing in support of the
political statements made by their leaders. The
references to polio in the G8 Summit Declaration
sets the stage for GPEI follow-up with each G8
country and the EC. |
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In Dallas, USA, children gather to paint donated crutches to distribute to polio patients
throughout the developing world. Meanwhile, artists with polio wrap their old crutches
with canvas and paint them for sale, with proceeds further supporting Global Art Initiative’s
programs. It’s all part of the Global Crutch Project, which director Dr. Fred Sorrells calls “a
beautiful sight - colourful works of art providing mobility for daily life, created in love by
American children”. For information, go to www.globalartinitiative.org |
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GPEI Annual Report 2008, June 2009 |
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India Expert Advisory Group Report, June 2009 |
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Polio Pipeline, Issue 04, July 2009 |
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Advisory Committee on Polio Eradication:
Report on the use of bivalent oral poliovirus
vaccine, July 2009 |
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Afghanistan/Pakistan Technical Advisory Group
Report, June 2009 |
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Nigeria Expert Review Committee Report,
September 2009. |
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21-22 October, 2009: Rotary International PolioPlus Committee, Evanston, USA |
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24 October, 2009: World Polio Day |
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27-29 October, 2009: Strategic Advisory Group of Experts on Immunization (SAGE), Geneva, Switzerland |
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17 November, 2009: Advisory Committee on Poliomyelitis Eradication (ACPE), Geneva, Switzerland |
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14-17 December, 2009r: Task Force on
Immunization (TFI), Harare, Zimbabwe |
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16-23 January 2010: WHO Executive Board, Geneva, Switzerland. |
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 For countries that have eradicated polio, the
strategies employed did not require rocket
science. Much had to do with a well articulated plan,
support from partners and the will to fully implement
the plans, especially through the involvement of all
relevant stakeholders. We have articulated a plan |
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which starts today, we have support from illustrious
and committed parties, we have demonstrated a will to
change what we do not like and from the faces I see here
today, everybody is ready to get involved.”
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| - Lagos state governor Babatunde Fashola (Nigeria) |
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NICEF’s bi-annual Executive Board meeting
in June featured a special session on global
health, with a focus on polio eradication, held by the
Executive Director, Ms Ann Veneman. The session opened
with a short clip from the Academy Award-nominated
documentary The Final Inch and was followed by
presentations from Dr. Muhammad Ali Pate, Executive
Director/CEO of Nigeria’s National Primary Health Care Development Agency;
Dr. Robert Scott,
Chairman,
International
PolioPlus
Committee,
Rotary
International;
and Dr.
Peter Salama,
UNICEF’s
outgoing chief of
health. The session
highlighted the
urgent need to finish the job of polio
eradication and the
benefit of updating
the Executive Board
on progress of the
eradication initiative.
These two events
brought renewed
interest within the
organization’s
leadership to
continue their critical
role as one of the spearheading partners of the Global
Polio Eradication Initiative.
