SOMALIA : United Nations fight to continue programme to vaccinate children against polio

Record ID: 336480

  • Title: SOMALIA : United Nations fight to continue programme to vaccinate children against polio
  • Date: 15th April 2002
  • Summary: (U5) BAIDOA, SOMALIA (APRIL 15, 2002) (REUTERS) VARIOUS, OF PEOPLE GATHERING FOR CELEBRATION OF VACCINATION PROGRAMME (2 SHOTS) SLV SOME OF THE VACCINATION FACILITATORS SINGING SCU WOMAN SINGING INTO A MICROPHONE VARIOUS, OF CHILDREN GATHERED (2 SHOTS) SMV TWO MEN DRUMMING SCU DRUM WIDE OF BANNER CELEBRATING THE IMMUNISATION PROGRAMME SCU PAINTING ON BANNER SHOWING A CHIL
  • Embargoed: 30th April 2002 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: BAIDOA, SOMALIA
  • Country: Somalia
  • Topics: Health
  • Reuters ID: LVA7TNYWI1ZK3A9YHLPTAVX687EA
  • Story Text: The United Nations reports that Polio eradication in Africa is at the cross roads. Lack of resources and proper infrastructure are some of the problems the U.N. is facing in the fight against this deadly disease in the continent.
    Polio immunization programmes are taking place this week in Somalia as well as Sudan, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Nigeria and India.
    Long conflicts, difficulties vaccinating in rural areas and finding enough money are the major challenges to eradicating polio in Africa, home to seven of the 10 countries still deemed polio-endemic, United Nations officials have said.
    Athalia Christie, technical officer, World Health Organisation (WHO) Somalia said: "The way we work around these challenges are by taking advantage of any window of opportunity that presents itself. So if a region opens up for a week or two we send our people in and they go ahead and vaccinate and search for AFP cases."
    Despite a 99.8 percent reduction in the number of new polio cases around the world since 1988, polio is still endemic in Somalia, Sudan and Angola, which are all beset by conflicts, as well as in Egypt, Ethiopia, Nigeria, Niger, India, Pakistan and Afghanistan, said Carl Tintsman, senior adviser to the U.N. children's agency and the World Health Organization.
    If children are not vaccinated, the polio virus still has a "place to live, a place to survive and it can go on surviving," he added. There is also the threat of polio being imported from one country to another.
    In Somalia, only seven new cases were reported last year, compared with 46 in 2000.
    Vance Paul Upto, representing National Immunisation Day International focal point S and C Zone-Baidoa, said it might have been difficult to carry out an immunisation programme in Somalia but due to social mobilization "awareness is quiet high" and "people now recognize the importance of the vaccination, so they accept it and they ask for it."
    He explained that the local communities in the area for which he was responsible had overcome a mistrust and "become very much involved " in the vaccination programme. He said "they appreciate and welcome the programmes."
    It is hoped that worldwide the transmission of polio will be stopped by the end of 2002.
    The highest transmission rates are in northern India, Pakistan, Niger, Nigeria and Afghanistan. Last year, 537 new cases of polio were reported globally, and 575 million children were vaccinated in 94 countries.
    UNICEF Africa regional director Urban Jonsson described the progress to wipe out polio as a "near miracle" and said the world is on track to achieve certified eradication of the disease by 2005.
    Polio is a highly infectious disease that mainly affects children under the age of 5. It can cripple the spinal cord and brain, causing paralysis and in some cases, death.
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