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ALARMING: WHO Declares Polio Declared a Global Public Health Emergency (Video)
ALARMING: WHO Declares Polio Declared a Global Public Health Emergency
May 6 2014
My father and husband had to deal with the horrific assault of polio and this crippling disease is not to be taken lightly. Are you protected? (see notation after the video)
The spread of polio is an international health emergency that requires “extraordinary measures” to control it, the World Health Organization said Monday.
Three countries are spreading the virus to the rest of the world and need to act immediately to stop it, by vaccinating the population and vaccinating travelers, WHO said.
“If unchecked, this situation could result in failure to eradicate globally one of the world’s most serious vaccine preventable diseases. It was the unanimous view of the Committee that the conditions for a Public Health Emergency of International Concern have been met,” WHO said in a statement.
“Pakistan, Cameroon, and the Syrian Arab Republic pose the greatest risk of further wild poliovirus exportations in 2014,” it added. The war in Syria has interrupted vaccination and allowed the virus to return. In Pakistan, Taliban militants have attacked workers trying to vaccinate children.
WHO said 417 cases of the disease, which was once nearly eradicated, were reported in 2013. The virus only infects human beings and WHO has been close many times to completely eradicating polio, like smallpox was eradicated in the 1970s. Currently, vaccination efforts cost about $1 billion a year.
But conflict often intervenes, like it has in Pakistan and Syria, making it difficult to vaccinate children.
WHO said Pakistan, Cameroon and Syria should make sure that all residents and long-term visitors receive a dose of polio vaccine at least a month before traveling internationally and should require proof of vaccination to travel.
“If the virus is re-introduced into a polio-free area it could become endemic again,” WHO’s Dr. Bruce Aylward told reporters on a conference call. “Indeed it could become endemic again in the world.”
There is clear evidence that travelers are spreading the virus, WHO says. Read more
Are you prepared?
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