Ban Ki-moon: Eradicate polio, finally
As the World Health Assembly convenes in Geneva this week, one item on the agenda will be polio, or more specifically, how to finally deliver on an epic promise made a quarter-century ago: to liberate humankind from one of the world's most deadly and debilitating diseases.
The world's war on polio has been as ambitious an undertaking as the successful campaign to eradicate another great public health menace, smallpox. Slowly but surely we have advanced on that goal. Polio, a highly preventable disease, today survives in only three countries: Afghanistan, Nigeria and Pakistan. But there is a looming danger that we could fall victim to our own success.
Here's why: The world is now populated by a generation that for the most part has never been exposed to polio. Additionally, many in this generation have been inadequately vaccinated. When the virus strikes under those conditions, the impact can be devastating. We saw that in the Republic of Congo and elsewhere in Africa in 2010, when an outbreak killed half of all who contracted the virus. A prompt emergency response by the international community halted the budding epidemic. But the incident gave an idea of the potential consequence of failing to eradicate polio while we have the chance.
This year fewer than 100 people were left paralyzed by polio, almost all of them in the three countries where polio remains entrenched. U.N. epidemiologists warn, however, that a renewed outbreak could cripple as many as 1 million people within the decade, many of them children.
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-ban-ki-moon-polio-20120521,0,5955803.story
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