Polio vaccination campaign targets 34 million kids

The UN-backed Global Polio Eradication Initiative has launched a new campaign to vaccinate more than 34 million children in the Horn of Africa against the polio virus amid concern that the crippling disease was re-emerging in the region. The new plan follows the confirmation of a polio case in Somalia, a country that had been polio-free since 2002, the UN World Health Organization (WHO) said in a news release on Tuesday. The victim - a 15-month-old girl in Mogadishu – had suffered the onset of paralysis on 12 July. The rapid and large-scale campaign was made possible due to a US $25 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and support from other donors, including the Humanitarian Aid Department of the European Commission (ECHO). The plan will see a series of immunisation campaigns coordinated across eight countries - Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Somalia, Sudan, Yemen and parts of Kenya and the Democratic Republic of the Congo - between September and November. There had been growing concern that polio outbreaks in neighbouring Ethiopia and Yemen were bound to extend to Somalia. Although five national campaigns were conducted in Somalia this year, most recently in June, July and August to prevent the risk of a large-scale epidemic, insecurity in the country and low routine immunisation rates could still result in the rapid spread of the virus. "The polio-eradication initiative has shown the world that even in the poorest countries, widespread and debilitating disease can be defeated," said Patty Stonesifer, co-chair and president of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. "As a resurgence of polio threatens to roll back the amazing progress of the past 20 years, it is more important than ever that governments and donors support the final push to eradicate polio," she added. The first phase of the plan will be launched on 28 September in Somalia, where 1.5 million children under the age of five will be targeted for immunisation. Some of the countries will use the recently developed monovalent oral polio vaccine type 1 (mOPV1) to maximise the impact of the campaigns. The new vaccine offers higher protection against polio virus type 1, the specific virus currently affecting the Horn of Africa. Global polio-eradication efforts have reduced the number of polio cases from 350,000 annually in 1988 to 1,163 cases as of 6 September 2005. Six countries - Nigeria, India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Niger and Egypt - remain polio-endemic, and the virus has continued to spread to previously polio-free countries. In total, 10 previously polio-free countries - Somalia, Indonesia, Yemen, Angola, Ethiopia, Chad, Sudan, Mali, Eritrea and Cameroon - had been reinfected in late 2004 and 2005. Poliomyelitis ("polio") is caused by the polio virus, which enters the body orally and infects the intestinal lining. It may proceed to the bloodstream and into the central nervous system, causing muscle weakness and often paralysis. In areas with poor hygiene and sanitation, the virus spreads through human contact, usually via water or food that is contaminated by faeces. It also can be transmitted through coughing and sneezing in crowded environments. Symptoms include fatigue, sore throat, fever, vomiting, gastro-intestinal disturbances, headache and pain in the neck and extremities. Weakness of muscles often leads to permanent paralysis and deformity of the limbs.