WHO: Africa finally freed from polio

The World Health Organization has declared that Africa has been liberated from polio as a result of many years of efforts to eradicate the virus.

The breakthrough results came after decades of campaigns and vaccination programs across the continent.

In Africa, cases of polio have not been diagnosed in four years. This is the standard to prove the eradication of a devastating virus. The last case was detected in Nigeria in 2016. In Nigeria, Boko Haram jihadists hampered vaccination efforts.

Professor Rose Ganavon van Reque, chairman of the African Regional Accreditation Commission for Eradication of Polio, called it a “historic day” for the continent.

Polio-medical term for polio-is a contagious virus that attacks the spinal cord and sometimes causes irreversible paralysis in children within hours.

In the 90’s Africa, where efforts to eradicate the virus were intensified, 75,000 children were paralyzed each year.

In developed countries such as the United States and the United Kingdom, lifelong effective vaccines have cleared the disease, but it has persisted in the poorer parts of the world for years.

Polio is now joining smallpox on the list of viruses cleared in Africa—”one of the greatest achievements in the history of public health,” said WHO. Currently it only exists in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

However, there are still rare cases of polio among unvaccinated Africans. The virus fragments in the jab can pass through the feces of the vaccinated person, mutating and eventually infecting an unprotected person.

As another promising development, WHO claims that the outbreak of Covid-19 in Africa has finally peaked. Since the beginning of the pandemic, there have been over 1 million cases and 28,000 deaths recorded across the continent.

Polioviruses usually spread in the feces of infected people and are picked up through contaminated water and food.

There is no cure, but simple and effective vaccines can prevent the disease.

By vaccinating people to prevent them from getting infected, they break the cycle of infection and eventually eradicate the wild virus.

Until the discovery of the vaccine in the 1950s, it was epidemic all over the world. In other words, it was in fashion all over the world.

But this was out of reach for many poor countries in Asia and Africa.

In 1996, African leaders pledged to eradicate polio at the 32nd Ordinary General Assembly of the Organization for African Unity in Yaounde, Cameroon.

At the time, polio paralyzed an estimated 75,000 children each year on the continent.

Since then, eradication efforts have saved up to 1.8 million children from lifelong paralysis and saved 180,000 lives.

The last case of polio in Africa was detected in Nigeria in 2016. Immunization efforts have been hampered by Boko Haram jihadists in the area. More than 20 workers involved in the campaign lost their lives.

The independent African Regional Certification Commission for Eradication of Polio (ARCC) has officially declared that Africa has no wild poliovirus after eradication of smallpox 40 years ago.

It follows a decades-long exhaustive process of documentation and analysis of polio surveillance and vaccination programs across 47 countries.

Dr. Matshidiso Moeti, WHO Head of Africa, said: “This is an important milestone for Africa. Now, future generations of African children can live a life without wild polio.

“This historic achievement was only possible thanks to the leadership and commitment of governments, communities, global polio eradication partners and philanthropists.

“I pay special homage to front-line health workers and vaccinations who have lost some lives due to this noble cause.”

“This is one of the greatest achievements in the history of public health,” WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Gebreyes jointly wrote in an article in Al Jazeera.

“It’s not easy to deliver the polio vaccine to all children in Africa to wipe out wild viruses, and the human resources, skills, and experience gained in the process have contributed to the disease and the poorest. “A community with life-saving services that leaves a legacy of how to reach the poorest and the poorest,” said Dr. Tedros, President of Rotary International, and Holger Knackack.

They recently said that in 2012, half of all globally recorded wild poliovirus cases occurred in Nigeria.

Eradication of wild polioviruses from the WHO African region has been a major achievement, but 16 countries in the region are currently experiencing an outbreak of vaccine-derived poliovirus (cVDPV).

At least 177 people have been diagnosed with vaccine-derived polio this year, according to a BBC report.

This form of the disease can spread to people who do not have a jab but live near who has it.

Polio vaccines use damaged viruses to provoke an immune response in the recipient. These damaged viruses are eventually excreted as feces outside the body.

In rare cases, the virus can mutate and re-infect, causing disease in people who have not been vaccinated or who have come in contact with faeces or contaminated water or food.

This cannot happen if everyone is vaccinated, but it covers about 95% in Africa, leaving many unprotected.

Vaccine-derived polio cases occur among unprotected people who live near other people who have been vaccinated.

But Africa has now eliminated all strains of “wild” polio. This means that naturally occurring strains of the virus are not circulating in people.

Vaccine-derived infections are less common than wild infections in the absence of the vaccine.

Only two countries (Afghanistan and Pakistan) record wild polio cases this year because of the global effort to eradicate the disease (which costs about $19 billion over 30 years). Among them, 87 cases were diagnosed.

Dr. Tedros said: “In the next low season, when polio cases naturally decline, resources and resources are available to ensure that the world has access to this important opportunity to protect all children in Afghanistan and Pakistan. A surge of effort is needed: virus.’

He said vaccination programs were suspended in those countries during the Covid-19 pandemic.

It comes because WHO leaders claim that Africa may have passed its peak of Covid-19 outbreaks.

Dr. Moeti, WHO Director-General for Africa, said yesterday at a meeting of African health ministers that the number of new cases had declined, but warned against self-satisfaction to avoid a second wave.

“There are some that seem to be peaks, and now the number of cases reported across the region is decreasing daily,” she said at an online meeting.

However, some countries, such as Namibia, are experiencing an increase on a daily basis.

Nearly 1.2 million cases and at least 28,000 people have died in Africa since the virus arrived in the continent on 14 February.

South Africa has more than half of these infectious diseases and is the fifth worst-hit country in the world.

Although the number of cases and deaths are declining, health minister Zwerri Mukheath warned, “Our biggest concern is whether this is actually the first spike and another spike.”

“We have passed our peak, our surge, but if you look at Spain it started to show a surge after a long sedation,” he told the same conference.

Dr. Moeti praises African leaders who have made a “very brave and difficult decision” to “avoid the catastrophes that were foreseen in earlier projections of how this virus will affect the African region.” did.

There was concern that the poor health system in Africa could collapse under the influence of a pandemic.

But the situation “will continue to be very serious,” warned Dr. Moeti.

Many governments have begun to lift the lockdown rules imposed to limit the spread of the virus. This means “requiring increased vigilance”.

This article is adapted from the original source.