October 25, 2013

At least 22 people—primarily babies and toddlers—are now believed to have contracted polio in Syria, the World Health Organization (WHO) reported this week. The polio outbreak is the first in Syria in at least 14 years. Before the civil war in Syria began in 2011, an estimated 95 percent of Syrian children were vaccinated against polio. The war, however, has crippled public health systems; fully half of the country’s hospitals have been destroyed or are so severely damaged as to be inoperable. According to UNICEF (United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund) estimates, at least a half a million Syrian children, all under age 5, have not been immunized and are at risk of polio.

Some 5 million Syrians have been displaced by the civil war and generally live in overcrowded, unsanitary conditions. Desperately short of food and medicine, many are living hand-to-mouth in parks, vacant buildings, or in cramped quarters with relatives. At least 2 million Syrian have left the country, and people continue to flood across borders in an uncontrolled manner. UNICEF spokesperson Simon Ingram points out that this exodus “increases the possibilities and means by which the [polio] virus can spread.” WHO has also reported increases in cases of hepatitis A, measles, and typhoid in refugee camps in Egypt, Jordan, and Turkey.

An infant receives a polio vaccination as part of a UNICEF immunization program. Polio remains endemic in Afghanistan, Nigeria, and Pakistan. Conditions in Syria recently led to an outbreak of polio there, as well. (AP/Wide World)

In 1988, WHO launched an immunization campaign that has largely eradicated polio in developed countries. However, the disease remains endemic in Afghanistan, Nigeria, and Pakistan. A Taliban ban on vaccination in Afghanistan and Pakistan threatens to derail the dramatic progress made toward wiping out polio. The Taliban denounces vaccination as a Western plot to sterilize Muslims.

Additional World Book articles:

• Syria 2011 (a Back in Time article)
• Syria 2012 (a Back in Time article)
• Jordan 2012 Ia Back in Time article)
• Turkey 2012 (a Back in Time article)
• Fighting a Persistent Foe (a special report)
• Syria: The Roots of a Rebellion (a special report)

May 24, 2012

A group dedicated to eradicating polio worldwide launched an emergency plan after recent outbreaks of the disease threatened countries that previously had been free of polio. The group, known as the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI), headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland, was launched by the World Health Organization (WHO), national governments, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), and Rotary International in 1988.

Polio, officially known as poliomyelitis, is an infection caused by a virus. Some people may have only such mild, short-term symptoms as headache, sore throat, and vomiting. Others may develop back and leg pain that leads to permanent paralysis.

In the past, polio epidemics were common throughout the world and greatly feared. However, during the 1950′s, American researcher Jonas E. Salk developed the first vaccine against polio. In 1961, an oral vaccine developed by another American researcher, Albert B. Sabin, was approved. The vaccines quickly became part of the standard vaccination regimen recommended for children. Since then, polio has been nearly eliminated in developed countries. From 1955 to 1957 in the United States, inoculation reduced the incidence of polio by 85 to 90 percent. When GPEI was founded in 1988, more than 350,000 children in more than 125 countries were paralyzed from polio each year. By the first decade of the 2000′s, the incidence of polio had been reduced by 99 percent.

Dr. Salk administers the polio vaccine to a child in 1954 as part of a mass testing program. (Courtesy of March of Dimes Foundation)

In early 2012, health officials at WHO were thrilled to announce that India (the second most populous country in the world) had been free of polio for one year. Nevertheless, polio remains endemic (constantly present somewhere in the population) in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Nigeria. In addition, China, Tajikistan, and West Africa reported large outbreaks of polio in 2012, their first cases in many years. Epidemiologists (doctors who study epidemics) determined that the disease had spread into China from Pakistan and into West Africa from Nigeria.

An infant in Afghanistan is immunized against polio through a program administered by UNICEF. (Courtesy of AP/Wide World)

GPEI officials urged donor countries to step up funding so that the group could intensify its efforts to increase vaccination coverage in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Nigeria. The group hoped that more technical assistance and greater social mobilization would increase accountability, coordination, and oversight of each country’s vaccination campaign and ease cultural misconceptions that often interfere with immunization.

Additional World Book articles

• Iron lung
• March of Dimes Foundation
• Roosevelt, Franklin Delano
• Fighting a Persistent Foe (a special report)
• Medicine 1955 (Back in Time article)
• Medicine 1959 (Back in Time article)
• Medicine 1960 (Back in Time article)
• Medicine 1961 (Back in Time article)
• Medicine 1963 (Back in Time article)
• Nobel Prizes 1954 (Back in Time article)

Jan. 31, 2012

India celebrated a major victory against polio in January with the announcement that for the first time, the country had not recorded any new cases of the crippling disease during the previous 12 months. In 2009, at least 741 cases of infection with wild (naturally occurring) poliovirus were recorded in India, more than in any other country. In 2011, several million government and foreign aid workers fanned out across India in two national immunization campaigns aimed at reaching some 172 million children under the age of 5. About 70 million children in the highest-risk areas received multiple vaccinations. Officials from the World Health Organization (WHO) said India’s $2-billion campaign to eradicate the disease was “arguably its greatest public health achievement.”

Polio is caused by a virus that enters the mouth and nose, then travels to the nervous system through the intestines. Crowded living conditions and poor sanitary conditions make it easier for the virus to spread. The virus may attack the nerve cells of the brain and spinal cord, causing paralysis. However, infection by poliovirus does not always result in severe illness. Some patients show only mild symptoms, such as fever, headache, sore throat, and vomiting. Some polio patients suffer new symptoms 30 years or more after the initial attack, a complication called post-polio syndrome.

The first effective weapon in preventing poliomyelitis was a vaccine developed by Jonas Salk in the early 1950′s. Albert B. Sabin later developed an effective oral polio vaccine.

UNICEF promotes the health and well-being of young people throughout the world. This infant is receiving a polio vaccination as part of a UNICEF immunization program in Afghanistan. AP/Wide World

India’s efforts to eradicate the disease were supported by the Global Polio Eradication Initiative, launched in 1988 by WHO, Rotary International, and the United Nations Children’s Fund. By 2007, the Initiative’s efforts had slashed worldwide polio cases by 99 percent. In 2012, wild poliovirus was endemic (constantly present somewhere in the population) in only three countries–Afghanistan, Nigeria, and Pakistan, though polio outbreaks sometimes occurred in other countries. No cases of polio have been recorded in the United States since 1984. Public health officials hope to make polio the second infectious disease eradicated worldwide. In 1980, officials from WHO formally announced that smallpox, one of most feared diseases in history, had been eliminated worldwide.

Additional World Book articles:

• Fighting a Persistent Foe (A Special Report)
• Kenny, Elizabeth
• Perlman, Itzhak
• Roosevelt, Franklin Delano (Battle with polio)