- The Global Polio Eradication Initiative
(GPEI) is the largest, internationally-coordinated public health effort
in history. Since 1988 when the GPEI was launched, the GPEI has reduced
the global incidence of polio by more than 99%. As a result, indigenous
poliovirus has been eliminated from all countries except four countries:
India, Nigeria, Pakistan and Afghanistan. Polio is on the verge of eradication.
However, many countries continue to experience re-infections that result
in polio outbreaks.
2. The African Union (AU) has been a strategically important partner in achieving this progress, in Africa. Africa had made the most progress of any Region between 1996 and 2002, following - under the leadership of the then Organization of African Unity
- the launch of the 'Kick Polio Out of Africa' campaign. Together, with
the leadership of the African Union, no child anywhere across Africa need
ever again be paralysed by this terrible disease that causes life-long
disability and contributes to poverty.
3. This paper highlights the key risks to this progress, the need for continued leadership by the AU to stop polio in Africa, and potential steps to address the risks.
I. Background:
- The Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI) has reduced the global incidence of polio by more than 99 percent
- from 350,000 cases per year in 125 countries in 1988, to 1660 cases in
18 countries in 2008.
- The "Kick Polio Out of Africa" campaign launched by President Mandela in 1996, and supported by the OAU and the AU, is an integral part of the success of GPEI.
- 91% of the polio cases in the world in 2008 were from just the four polio-endemic countries of Nigeria (northern states), India (2 northern states), Pakistan, and southern provinces of Afghanistan. The rest of the cases were from countries that were re-infected with poliovirus importations from either Nigeria or from India.
- Since the launch of GPEI in 1988, nearly five million people are today walking, who would otherwise have been paralysed by the disease. An estimated more than 250,000 polio-related deaths have been prevented, in addition to more than 1.2 million childhood deaths averted by the systematic distribution of Vitamin A during polio supplementary immunization activities (SIAs).
- The polio eradication infrastructure and staff on the ground have also provided broader benefits for the health systems by supporting the delivery of various other critical health interventions, establishing a robust disease surveillance network, establishing cold chain and logistics systems for vaccine distribution, scaling up communication and social mobilization efforts to increase awareness of the benefits of immunization, and training a large cadre of health workers in the field.
- The continued leadership of the AU and sustained and intensified effort by the polio-infected AU Member States to reach and vaccinate all children will contribute to the ultimate success of this historic effort to deliver a polio-free world.
Source: African Union
Country: Angola, Benin, Burkina Faso, Central African Republic, Chad, Côte d'Ivoire, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, Ghana, Mali, Niger, Sudan, Togo, Kenya, Uganda