UN:
Spread of Polio Now a World Health Emergency
LONDON
May 5, 2014 (AP)
By
MARIA CHENG AP Medical Writer
Raising a worldwide alarm, the World
Health Organization announced Monday that spread of polio is an international
public health emergency that could grow in the next few months and unravel the
nearly three-decade effort to eradicate the crippling disease.
The agency described current polio outbreaks in
Asia, Africa and the Middle East as an "extraordinary event" that
required a coordinated international response. It was the first-ever
international alert on polio.
"Until it is eradicated, polio will continue to
spread internationally, find and paralyze susceptible kids," Dr. Bruce
Aylward, who leads WHO's polio efforts, said during a press briefing.
Polio usually strikes children under five and is most
often spread via infected water. There is no specific cure, but several
vaccines exist.
Experts are particularly concerned that the virus
continues to pop up in countries that were previously free of the disease, such
as Syria, Somalia and Iraq — where civil war or unrest complicates efforts to
contain the virus. That spread has happened during the traditionally low season
for polio spreading, leaving experts worried that cases could spike in the
coming months.
Last week, WHO convened an emergency
committee to decide whether the current polio outbreaks — in at least 10
countries in Asia, the Middle East and Africa — merit the declaration of an
international health emergency.
Monday's decision means numerous measures will be
adopted, including requiring people from countries exporting polio cases to
have a certificate of polio vaccination before being able to travel
internationally. Those measures will be reviewed in three months, WHO said.
At the end of April, there were 68
confirmed polio cases, compared with just 24 at the same time last year. In
2013, polio reappeared in Syria, sparking fears the civil unrest there could
ignite a wider outbreak across the region. The virus has also been identified
in the sewage system in Israel, the West Bank and Gaza, although no cases have
been spotted.
In February, WHO found that polio had
also returned to Iraq. It is already circulating in eight other countries:
Pakistan, Nigeria, Ethiopia, Afghanistan, Equatorial Guinea, Cameroon, Somalia
and Kenya.
An independent monitoring board set up by WHO to
assess progress in eradicating polio has described the problems as
"unprecedented" and called the situation in Pakistan "a powder
keg." Dozens of Pakistani polio workers have been killed in the last two
years and the vast majority of new cases are in Pakistan. There is some
distrust of polio vaccinations in Pakistan since American forces located Osama
bin Laden there using information gained in part under the guise of polio
vaccinations.
Officials also worry countries torn by conflict, such as
Ukraine, Sudan and the Central African Republic, are rife for polio
reinfection.
Some critics say it may even be time to accept that
polio may not be eradicated, since the deadline to wipe out the disease has
already been missed several times. The ongoing effort costs about $1 billion a
year.
"For the past two years, problems have steadily,
and now rapidly mounted," said Dr. Donald A. Henderson, in an email.
Henderson led WHO's initiative to get rid of smallpox, the only disease ever to
have been eradicated. "It is becoming apparent that there are too many
problems (for the polio eradication effort) to overcome, however many resources
are assigned."
But Aylward said WHO and its partners aren't yet
considering pushing back their latest deadline — by 2018 — to eradicate polio.
Still, the independent board monitoring the progress
being made on polio is not so convinced and has called for the program to be
completely overhauled.
"Few involved in (polio eradication) can give a
clear account of how decisions are made," concluded a recent report by the
group. "If a billion-dollar global business missed its major goal several
times, it would be inconceivable that it would not revisit and revise its
organizational and decision-making structure."
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