According to news reports, Africa has not been infected with wild poliovirus as a result of decades of vaccination campaigns.
An independent body called the African Regional Certification Commission for Polio Eradication (ARCC) announced today (August 25) during a World Health Organization (WHO) video conference. Reported by Reuters.. Of the 47 WHO African countries, Nigeria Virus Recently, and now, four years have passed since the country’s latest wild polio case.
The disease known as polio is caused by three different strains Polio virusOccasionally attacks nerve cells in the spinal cord, causing partial or complete paralysis, Previously reported live sciences.. The majority of people with polio are not paralyzed, but the muscles that support breathing can be paralyzed, leaving the paralyzed person permanently impaired or dying in that condition. There is. According to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
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According to the CDC, people can catch poliovirus through contact with the feces of infected people or through contaminated food, water, and objects that come into contact with the mouth. Although uncommon, the virus spreads when an infected person sneezes or coughs. There is no specific cure for polio, but the complete course of polio vaccine is over 99% effective in preventing infections, Says CDC..
Called the Global Polio Eradication Initiative by a coalition of governments and local leaders that coordinated a campaign to vaccinate children in Borno State in the northeastern part of the country to combat wild polioviruses in Nigeria. .. The guardian reported..
Dr. Matshidiso Moeti, Head of Africa for the World Health Organization (WHO), said during a press conference, in addition to managing vaccinations, improving surveillance systems to monitor polio outbreaks and working with polio survivors to campaign. He said he was raising awareness. , According to the Guardian. Health workers also faced the threat of an attack by the Bokoharam Rebellion in northern Nigeria and occasionally faced violence from local communities who opposed vaccination efforts because of concerns about their impact.
To protect health care workers, the coalition worked with members of the army and government-approved militias who acted as their escorts, Dr. Tunji Hunsho, a non-profit Rotary International Nigerian anti-polio coordinator, told Reuters. It was. Inclusion of polio survivors in the eradication team has been found to be essential to gaining the trust of the community. BBC News told..
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“Many people refused polio vaccine“But they see how hard we are to crawl to reach them, sometimes to talk to them,” Diddy said. “Don’t think it’s important that you don’t protect your child like yourself?”
Now, thanks to these widespread efforts, Africa has been declared free of wild poliovirus — but the work is not yet finished. Oral polio vaccines, including those used in Africa, contain attenuated poliovirus. The poliovirus can mutate to act like a wild virus and can infect unvaccinated individuals. According to CDC.. In areas with low vaccination coverage, vaccine-derived poliovirus can develop even if wild strains of the virus are eliminated.
A total of 177 vaccine-derived polioviruses in Africa this year, Reuters reported, are currently experiencing a small outbreak of vaccine-derived polioviruses in Nigeria and 15 other African countries, according to the BBC News. Has been reported. To avoid vaccine-derived polio, the United States discontinued oral polio vaccine administration in 2000 and now includes so-called inactivated, killed poliovirus, rather than attenuated poliovirus. I use only poliovirus vaccine.
“The global eradication of polio requires stopping everything. [oral polio vaccines] The CDC website says it has routine immunizations as soon as possible after the eradication of wild poliovirus. Because wild poliovirus is eliminated in Africa, it is necessary to prevent recurrence of wild poliovirus and maintain vaccination coverage. An ongoing threat to vaccine-derived polio,” he said during a press conference.
Bill Melinda Gates Foundation polio expert Michael Galway told Reuters that the wild poliovirus could reappear in Africa given the continued spread of the virus in Afghanistan and Pakistan. I said yes. “It’s still dangerous everywhere until the wild poliovirus is eradicated everywhere,” he said.
Originally published in Live Science.
