A major milestone in polio eradication

 

 

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A major milestone in polio eradication

via Prep4Civils by Bharath Vaishnov on 1/15/12

This editorial is too technical. however i am putting some information collected from other polio related articles in Hindu

• Poliomyelitis (polio) is a highly infectious viral disease which mainly affects young children.
• transmitted through contaminated food and water, and multiplies in the intestine, from where it can invade the nervous system
• Acute Flaccid Paralysis is a disabling condition where there is absence of muscle tone in one or both limbs, and tendon reflexes
• oral polio vaccine prevents the transmission of infection effectively.
• If all tests for the wild polio virus in India — including laboratory analysis of acute flaccid paralysis cases with onset up to mid-January and environmental sewage sampling — return negative, India will officially be deemed to have stopped the transmission of the indigenous wild polio virus.
• The next step would be to look at a polio-free South East Asian Region in 2014
• Currently Pakistan , Afhganistan, India, Nigeria are nations considered enedemic with polio virus
• challenges faced by India in fighting polio
1.  a huge population
2. the logistics of covering a vast geographical area,
3. poor sanitation and infrastructure,
4. resistance among some groups of people to taking the vaccine,
5. children of migrant communities

Progress

• Expanded Immunisation Programme in the late 1970s
• 1985, Universal Immunisation Programme launched
• National Pulse Polio Initiative (PPI) in 1995-96,
1. Targeted  coverage of every child under five in the country with the Oral Polio Vaccine (OPV) to be given on two National Immunisation Days, one each in December and January
• PPI set for the nation a new target — eradication of polio by 2005.
1. involved millions of frontline workers from the private health sector, members of Rotary International, volunteers, anganwadi workers, besides the massive public health workforce
2. created systems –

1.                                                                i.      cold chains for storage and transportation of the vaccines,
2.                                                              ii.      follow up and mop up campaigns to track children left out

• In each PPI, 24 lakh vaccinators visit over 20 crore households to ensure that nearly 17.2 crore children, less than five years, are immunised with the OPV
• Pockets of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar were still endemic
1. government targeted 107 'high risk' blocks in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, and identified the challenges, which included remote locations, refusal of vaccine in some areas, and migrating populations.
2. 'Influencers', including religious leaders, were enlisted and tracked for each high risk area, and this helped polio teams reach more families.
3. UP and Bihar have not reported any case of polio since April 2010, and September 2010, respectively.
• there is no room for complacency, with the nation having to maintain its zero-cases record for the next three years to be able to totally 'eradicate' poliomyelitis.
• greatest concern is the possibility of infections carried across borders by migrating populations
• Pakistan and Afghanistan both saw alarming increases in polio cases, and poliovirus from Pakistan re-infected China (which had been polio-free since 1999)
• In Africa, active polio transmission continues in Nigeria, Chad and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, with outbreaks in West and Central Africa in the past 12 months

 

 

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