80 million African children to be protected
Geneva, Lungi, New York - With polio cases at an all-time
low in West Africa, 16 countries are renewing their
commitment to eliminate the crippling virus as they
launch a massive coordinated campaign aimed at reaching
80 million children with oral polio vaccine.
Coordinated or "synchronized" polio National
Immunization Days (NIDs) from 19-26 October across West
Africa will involve tens of thousands of volunteers
and health workers fanning across the region to find
and immunize every child under five. Renewed stability
in the region will allow immunization teams to access
children in previously unreachable areas in Sierra Leone,
Liberia and Guinea (Conakry).
At the launch of the coordinated effort in Lungi, Sierra
Leone, President Olusegun Obasanjo of Nigeria said,
"If we eliminate polio in Sierra Leone but we don't
in Nigeria we are not safe. If we eliminate polio in
Mali but we don't in Burkina Faso we are not safe. That
is why all of West Africa must work together to eradicate
this disease."
Leaders from Sierra Leone, Mali, Nigeria and high level
representatives from the Revolutionary United Front
Party (RUFP), the World Health Organization (WHO), the
United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), Rotary International
and other polio partners gathered in Lungi to launch
this synchronized polio immunization campaign. Following
Muslim and Christian prayers, leaders committed their
support to polio's eradication, and administered the
first drops of vaccine to babies.
On behalf of the members of the Economic Community
of West African States (ECOWAS), President Obasanjo,
President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah of Sierra Leone and President
Alpha Oumar Konare, President of Mali and also Chairman
of ECOWAS, signed the "Lungi Declaration",
a document which commits the countries to eliminating
polio from their region, contributing to the global
effort to eradicate the wild poliovirus and certify
the world polio-free by the end of 2005.
Appealing for the silencing of weapons so that peace
can be reinstated in Sierra Leone and across the region,
President Konare said, "We need to take action
so that the entire subregion can make the national anti-polio
immunization campaigns not only a success, but above
all a lever for peace and a strategy for immunizing
children in real need."
"The composition of this gathering here in Lungi
underscores the importance of partnership and co-operation
at all levels to achieve the objectives of the NIDs
for the well-being of our children," said President
Kabbah.
In order to reach all children, teams of health workers
and volunteers have created exhaustive maps detailing
every village, no matter how small. Immunization teams
will go house-to-house, travel through refugee camps,
paddle pirogues to tiny islands, set up special immunization
posts at every border point and in market squares to
ensure every child is immunized. Where access is difficult,
teams from one country may cross into the neighbouring
country to immunize children. For example, immunization
teams from Sierra Leone will help to vaccinate children
in cross-border villages in Guinea.
"We know this approach is effective," said
Dr Ebrahim Samba, Director of the WHO Regional Office
for Africa. "Over the last 12 months alone, our
combined efforts have resulted in a dramatic reduction
of new polio cases. By synchronizing National Immunization
Days, we are stopping the poliovirus in its tracks,
and we are proving that together, we can achieve this
major milestone in global public health."
In the region to date in 2001, only Nigeria, Niger
and Mauritania have reported polio cases, for a total
of 20 cases, reduced from a total of 1199 reported in
1999. Nigeria is considered one of five remaining wild
poliovirus reservoirs and so long as it is polio-endemic,
there is a risk of importation of wild poliovirus to
neighbouring countries.
"Victory of total eradication of polio is at hand,"
said Dr Rimah Salah, the Regional Director for UNICEF
West and Central Africa, "We are on the verge of
eradicating this debilitating disease. However, the
time ahead is critical and we have to be extremely vigilant
to ensure that all children are immunized and the last
case of polio is recorded once and for all."
The poliovirus does not respect national boundaries.
In any region where conflict, the labour situation and
natural disasters cause frequent movement of populations,
the synchronization of NIDs in an entire geographical
area is essential to interrupt polio transmission.
A synchronized effort in Central Africa involving Angola,
Congo, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Gabon
ensured 16 million children under five were immunized
during three rounds of synchronized NIDs earlier this
year. Afghanistan and Pakistan have adopted the same
approach by synchronizing their polio eradication activities
at all key border crossings, especially important during
the last round of NIDs in September.
The 16 participating countries in West Africa are Benin,
Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, Côte d'Ivoire, Gambia,
Ghana, Guinea (Conakry), Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Mali,
Mauritania (second round only), Niger, Nigeria, Senegal,
Sierra Leone and Togo. The first round from 19-26 October
will be followed by a second round from 22-26 November.
Nigeria will undertake subnational immunization days
in October followed by full NID rounds in November 2001
and January 2002.
Continuing contributions from Rotary International
will be key to the success of polio eradication efforts.
In West Africa, Rotary volunteers will work with Ministries
of Health and other partners to ensure vaccine distribution,
cold chain supplies and other logistics, along with
the immunization of children.
"You can be sure that as long as polio is paralysing
children, Rotary International will be relentless in
its pursuit to stop this virus. Rotary volunteers are
committed to a polio-free Africa, and a polio-free world,"
said Sam Okudzeto, a member of Rotary's African Regional
PolioPlus Committee. To date, Rotary International has
contributed
US$ 438 million to the Global Polio Eradication Initiative,
and will have given half a billion US dollars by 2005.
Once the wild poliovirus is eradicated, certification-standard
surveillance for the disease must continue. The United
States' Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)
has played a leading role in training staff and implementing
polio surveillance activities in polio endemic and high-risk
countries.
At the end of 2000, the poliovirus was circulating
in only 20 countries in the world, reduced from 125
when the Global Polio Eradication Initiative was launched
in 1988. To date in 2001, indigenous wild poliovirus
has been virologically confirmed in just 10 countries.
Along with West, Central and the Horn of Africa, the
virus continues to circulate in Afghanistan, India and
Pakistan. The global caseload was reduced by 99% between
1988 and 2000, from an estimated 350 000 cases, to 2882
reported last year.
The Global Polio Eradication Initiative is spearheaded
by WHO, Rotary International, CDC and UNICEF.
The polio eradication coalition also includes governments
of countries affected by polio; private foundations
(e.g. United Nations Foundation, Bill & Melinda
Gates Foundation); development banks (e.g. World Bank);
donor governments (e.g. Australia, Austria, Belgium,
Canada, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Japan,
Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal, United Kingdom
and United States of America); the European Commission;
humanitarian organizations (e.g. the International Red
Cross and Red Crescent movement) and corporate partners
(e.g. Aventis Pasteur, De Beers). Volunteers in developing
countries also play a key role; 10 million have participated
in mass immunization campaigns.
Mohammad Jalloh, UNICEF, New York, tel.
(+1 212) 326 7516, mjalloh@unicef.org
Paryss Kouta, UNICEF Camp/Freetown, Telephone: (232 22)
241422, Email: pkouta@unicef.org
Christine McNab, WHO, Geneva, tel. (+41 22) 791 4688,
mobile (41) 79 254 6815, mcnabc@who.int;
Vivian Fiore, Rotary International, Chicago, tel. (+1
847) 866 3234, fiorev@rotaryintl.org;
Steve Stewart, CDC, Atlanta, tel. (+1 404) 639 8327,
znc4@cdc.gov;
