Africa announced that it had achieved victory over the virus, which was paralyzing 75,000 children on the continent annually. The polio virus was last discovered on the continent four years ago. A year after evaluating the information on the 47 countries registered with the World Health Organization, an independent panel of experts announced, during a finally virtual ceremony, that the continent had become free of the polio virus.
The scale of this achievement cannot be overstated, and it should inspire the African continent with confidence in its ability to overcome its most daunting challenges.
In 1996, the leaders of African countries pledged to eliminate the polio virus, at a session of the Organization of African Unity in Yaounde, the capital of Cameroon. That year, the late President Nelson Mandela began a campaign to expel the polio virus from Africa. The Africans responded to Mandela’s call. In 2000, the first vaccination against the virus was carried out for 76 million children, in 17 African countries, simultaneously in West and Central Africa. Two million of these have yet to be vaccinated.
After 16 years and billions of vaccines were used, the last outbreak of the polio virus was in northern Nigeria. In view of the state’s awareness of its danger, the country set out to fight it vigorously, with support from the “Global Polio Eradication Initiative”, which was formed to help Nigeria, Niger, Cameroon, Chad, and the Central African Republic. In fact, conducting a vaccination campaign in several countries is very complicated, as all monitoring and vaccination teams work to carry out the campaigns in very spacious areas, using detailed partial planning, to ensure access to all populated places.
The diversity of terrain, culture, and languages, as well as disrupted health systems due to migration, conflict and climate change all pose additional challenges. The polio eradication program has overcome all these obstacles, through innovative and adaptive strategies. The program developed a unique technology to reach children in insecure areas of the Lake Chad Basin. As a result of inspections, special transportation teams have been formed in fixed locations and areas of severe traffic congestion, such as: markets and borders. And in 2017 alone, mobility teams in one Nigerian city vaccinated 299,000 children, who move from conflict-affected areas in Borno state.
Infrastructure and advanced expertise in fighting polio played a major role in enhancing other health services. In Chad, vaccination strategies were used to reach the nomadic population, in addition to providing them with routine health care. Today, the polio eradication program plays an important role in Africa to fight the emerging corona virus, as workers and resources devoted to polio are working to support countries to coordinate response to any virus outbreak, educate the public, conduct contact tracing, data management and surveillance.
But history tells us that we must remain vigilant. Although the polio virus is no longer present in Africa, it still infects children in Pakistan and Afghanistan. In order for the polio virus to be eliminated globally, all countries of the world need to maintain high levels of immunity for their populations.
The road ahead is still difficult, given the new obstacle represented by the Corona virus, but we have overcome previous obstacles. We are armed, now, with experience and advanced infrastructure, through the polio eradication program, over several decades, and the overwhelming proof that there is no challenge that can undermine the commitment of African leaders to their people.
• The infrastructure and advanced expertise in fighting polio played a major role in enhancing other health services. In Chad, vaccination strategies were used to reach the nomadic population, in addition to providing them with routine health care.
Machidiso Rebecca – WHO Regional Director for Africa
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