WHO declares polio eradicated from Africa


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hdptcar

Polio , which presents with symptoms such as paralysis in the hands and feet, can spread through the human stool, leaving a permanent sequela. Polio has been a problem on the African continent for many years, but it was announced on August 25, 2020 that the wild strain of polio had finally been eradicated from Africa due to the spread of vaccines with global support.

Africa Celebrates the End of the Wild Poliovirus (but Not the End of All Polio)-The New York Times
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/24/world/africa/polio-africa-eradicated.html

Wild Polio Wiped Out In Africa — But Vaccine-Derived Polio Persists :Goats and Soda :NPR
https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2020/08/25/905884740/africa-declares-wild-polio-is-wiped-out-yet-it-persists-in-vaccine-derived-cases

In Japan, a polio that was endemic in the 1910s to the 1960s, but due to the spread of vaccination, no wild strain has been reported since the 1980s. On the other hand, although the polio incidence in Pakistan, Afghanistan, India, and African continents has fallen, it has not been eradicated for a long time. However, as a result of the spread of the vaccine, India was declared eradicated in March 2014. In addition, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared on 25 August 2020 that African wild polio had been eradicated.

Out of the African continent, the outbreak of polio was a problem in Nigeria. In Nigeria, a vaccine boycott occurred in 2003 from rumors that question the safety of polio vaccines. Over the next five years, a polio outbreak occurred in 20 countries around Nigeria. Although the epidemic had subsided since the launch of a rumor-free vaccine campaign in 2015, four wild strain cases were reported in 2016. In northern Nigeria, a militant group, Boko Haram, is active, and the lack of access to health care by citizens has also hampered polio eradication.


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Diariocritico de Venezuela

However, after a wild-type case was reported in 2016, with global medical support, the government and military began planning for vaccination using hygiene images and data analysis. In 2016, more than 800,000 children were vaccinated, and with the results, the African Regional Certification Commission (ARCC), which determines the situation of polio in Africa, is wild in Africa. Declared the stock polio was eradicated.

In the United States and Japan, polio vaccine is injected, but in developing countries, oral vaccine is used. Not all polio has completely disappeared from Africa because orally inoculated vaccines rarely mutate the virus to resemble wild-type strains. 'This is an important milestone for Africa. Now children of a new generation in Africa can live where there is no wild polio,' said WHO Head of Africa's Mazidiso Moeti. However, Secretary-General Tedros Adanom still cautions, 'As we all know, this is not the end of polio.'


by UNICEF Ethiopia

in Note, Posted by darkhorse_log