PRESS BRIEFING ON GLOBAL EFFORT TO ELIMINATE POLIO

PRESS BRIEFING ON GLOBAL EFFORT TO ELIMINATE POLIO

Polio could be entirely eradicated within a year if the political will were turned to the effort, since the technological and biological capability was already in place, according to Dr. David Heymann, the Director General’s Representative for Polio Eradication within the World Health Organization (WHO).  At a Headquarters press briefing this afternoon he informed correspondents of the latest developments in the global effort to eliminate the disease.

Also taking part in the briefing, Kul Gautam, Deputy Executive Director of the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), said WHO would certify the world as polio-free once monitoring for three years had proven the virus to be wiped out.  World leaders would be wise to make that commitment.  He said eradicating polio was a global public good.  No one was safe until it was completely eliminated, since transmission led to importations to previously polio-free areas.

Describing the Global Polio Eradication Initiative begun in 1988, Dr. Heymann said the joint effort by UNICEF, WHO, Rotary International and the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDCP) was the largest public health initiative in history and the most comprehensive public-private partnership ever.  Transmission of polio had been cut by 99 per cent and the virus had been confined to seven countries, namely Afghanistan, Egypt, India, Nigeria, Niger, Pakistan and Somalia.  Of those, India, Pakistan and Nigeria accounted for 95 per cent of the cases recorded.  Yet, importations into previously disease-free areas remained a risk that should be treated as an urgent public health threat.

As of 12 November, he said, 12 cases of paralytic polio had been recorded this year in previously polio-free countries following importations of wild polio-virus.  Burkina Faso, Chad, Ghana, Lebanon and Togo had each reported from one to six episodes.  The emergency response to the importations had cost $20 million.  In addition, the risk of importations around the world had been magnified by a funding gap limiting the scope of immunization activities.  Of particular concern was the fear that the “mop up” campaigns initiated on 22 October in West Africa to limit the damage of the importation may not have reached enough children to interrupt transmission.

The initiative had reduced the number of polio cases to a total of 520 last year, Dr. Heymann said.  That was down from a thousand per day at its inception.  Success was based on four strategies, that of vaccinating early; promoting vaccinations through drives; building a network of laboratories to track the movement and patterns of transmission, and the conduct of “mop up” activities, or building walls around new cases to isolate them.

The global funding gap of $210 million for activities through 2005 was the greatest threat to eradicating the disease and preventing importations, he said.  Without an additional $30 million by 30 November to cover the first quarterly costs of next year, surveillance activities would be severely compromised by then.

Mr. Gautam stressed the urgent need for States to make the commitment on taking the final steps to eradicate the polio pestilence.  He said 99 per cent of the virus had been wiped out at a cost of $3 billion over the 15 years since the initiative’s start.  Yet the three countries accounting for 95 per cent of the disease now were large.  Their combined populations were about a billion people.  About $50 million a year was required to run the labs monitoring the disease and isolating importations.  Government advocacy at all levels for all operations was an important component in gaining participation.

Dr. Heymann added that the emphasis now was on making sure the polio vaccine was available to all and that countries practised good neighbourliness with regard to monitoring and cooperating on importations.  He noted that the Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC) had recently reaffirmed commitments made earlier to step up eradication efforts, since five of the seven countries with indigenous wild polio virus were OIC members.

In response to a question about the quality of the vaccine used in Nigeria, Mr. Gautam said rumours had cropped up, as they did around all such programmes.  However, the vaccines used were of the highest quality, as were the researchers and medical personnel involved in vaccinations.  Dr. Heymann said about a half-dozen pharmaceutical companies were producers of the serum, most of them in European countries.

In response to other questions, Dr. Heymann explained that the polio virus causing paralysis was transmitted through direct contact between humans.  It found opportunities for transmission among children who had not been vaccinated.  In India this year, the number of cases had been lower than ever but, among the dense population in an area that had never been polio-free, the numbers of infections were still high.  Nigeria was experiencing importations from the north into the polio-free southern portion of the country.  And while Pakistan had experienced more cases this year than last, transmission had dropped following intense supplementary immunization activities.  Transmission could be stopped in all three by the end of 2004.

Finally, he said the vaccine was made from the live polio virus that had been killed.  The serum used had been fairly constant since its development.  Still, there were side effects.  It was highly desirable to make the world polio-free.

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