Campaign to end polio yields positive results — UNICEF

The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) procures 1.7 billion doses of oral polio vaccine to reach 500 million children every year. This has helped to protect over a thousand children everyday, from disability during a 26-year global effort to eradicate polio.

The worldwide campaign has immunised millions of previously unreached children across the globe.

About 10 million people today would otherwise have been paralysed, while an additional 1.5 million lives have been saved through the routine administration of Vitamin A during polio vaccination drives.

Polio cases

The global annual number of polio cases has fallen from 350,000 in 1988, to 416 in 2013, and 243 so far this year – an extraordinary drop of more than 99 per cent.  All but three countries where polio was firmly entrenched – Afghanistan, Nigeria and Pakistan – have eliminated the virus within their borders, and multiple outbreaks have been contained over the past 26 years.

“In 1988, polio was a leading cause of childhood disability,” said UNICEF Executive Director Anthony Lake. 

“In country after country since then, a generation of children has grown up without the spectre of polio. 

“The success of the eradication effort – reaching some of the most disadvantaged communities in some of the most dangerous circumstances - proves that it is possible to reach all children.” 

“Our most ambitious and audacious goals for children can be met. And if they can be, they must be,” Lake explained.

UNICEF’s report 

According to UNICEF, Nigeria has had only six cases this year, down from 49 in 2013. Afghanistan has reduced transmission to very low levels, with most cases linked to Pakistan.  With 187 cases already reported this year, Pakistan is now the world’s largest remaining reservoir of polio. 

While polio remains endemic in only three countries, it continues to pose a risk to children everywhere, especially in countries such as South Sudan, the Central African Republic and Ukraine, which have not made routine immunisation a priority. Outbreaks in Syria, Iraq, Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea and Somalia can be traced to Pakistan and Nigeria.  

UNICEF’s social mobilisation work helps persuade families to accept the vaccine when it reaches them. Intensive efforts over the past decade have seen acceptance of the polio vaccine at their highest levels ever in countries where polio remains endemic.

“The world has never been closer to this once-in-a-generation opportunity of eradicating polio for good.” Every child deserves to live in a polio-free world,”  Lake said.

Routine immunisation

Although polio remains endemic in only three countries excluding Ghana, Ghana has made routine immunisation a priority, because it continues to pose a risk to children everywhere.

In that respect, the second round of this year’s National Immunisation Days (NIDs) is fixed from October 30 to November 1, and immunisation teams will move from house-to-house to immunise all children from birth to five years against polio.

Doses given during NIDs are additional doses every child under five should receive even if she or he is already immunised.

Repeated doses of the polio vaccine are safe, a child needs between 10 and 15  doses to be fully protected. Any child under 15 years who develops sudden paralysis (weakness of the limbs) should be sent to the nearest health centre within 24 hours.