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One Year, Zero Cases of Polio
 

Lauren O'Connor is Polio Communications Officer for the Global Poverty Project and works on The End of Polio  campaign 

Guess what? Angola has now passed more than 12 months without a single case of polio! Watch this video from UNICEF to see how Angola turned the tide against the disease:

This month it was officially confirmed that Angola had passed a year without a single case. The last of the pending samples have been tested and Angola’s most recent case was all the way back in July 2011.

Angola had originally been officially declared ‘polio-free’ in 2001, but had been struggling with re-established transmission since 2005. While the country will have to pass three years without a single case before it is officially declared ‘polio-free’ once more, this is fantastic progress…

And further proof that a world without polio is possible.

But most of all, it is a testament to the determination of the Angolan people to stamp out this disease once and for all. People from all walks of life have made this possible: the parents who allowed their children to be vaccinated, the volunteers who worked through the heat of the day to reach every child, the local leaders who inspired and motivated, and the Government who provided 89% of the program’s operational costs.

All of us here at The End of Polio campaign send our best wishes to everyone involved in ending the transmission of polio in Angola. Congratulations and keep up the good work!
Posted by Lauren O'Connor in Polio, Global Health for column Success Stories on Aug 24th 2012, 13:06
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What Makes Polio an Emergency?

 

Guest blog by Lauren O'Connor from The End of Polio.  

 

On the 25th of May, the World Health Assembly declared polio a programmatic emergency for global public health. We had a chat with Dr Bruce Aylward, Assistant Director-General at the World Health Organization (WHO), to ask him – what exactly does this mean?

 

First of all, why now? What makes polio an emergency?

Three things were driving the ministers of health of the world in declaring polio an emergency: first - on a positive note - polio eradication has reached a tipping point. India, the country that was responsible for almost half the world’s cases just two years ago, has now passed an entire year without reporting a case, providing incontrovertible evidence that polio can be eradicated anywhere.

However, and this is the ministers' second point, polio cases unexpectedly - and alarmingly - surged late last year in the three remaining endemic countries, from where it would undoubtedly make a global comeback unless it is completely eradicated. 

And third, the ministers saw further evidence that when polio spreads to polio-free places, it is increasingly deadly. In Tajikistan and Congo in 2010, and in China in 2011, polio paralysed adults as well as children in these outbreaks with high fatality rates among the adults, reaching nearly 50% in some of these places. This is on top of other research that has recently shown that if we let this opportunity slip through our fingers, we will soon be seeing more than 200,000 children again being paralysed by polio each year.

That’s not just a number, that’s children’s lives changed forever. Many of them would die. If there was a tsunami coming, with 200,000 children in its path, we would do everything we could to get the children out of harm's way. We need to get those children out of the path of the poliovirus.

This is the emergency: if we don’t successfully eradicate polio now, the consequences will be catastrophic. And the only way to prevent that is to ensure we get the vaccine into the mouths of every child, everywhere.

Why do you think polio eradication is so important?

Ultimately polio eradication is about equity and social justice - it is about reaching every child everywhere with the most basic of health service, and at the same time eliminating an awful disease forever. We have the ability to stop this disease from paralysing hundreds of thousands of children each year. While we’re working towards the end of polio, we’re also strengthening health systems in the process. We’re showing that every child, no matter who and no matter where, can be reached with a health service. And once we’ve succeeded, no child will ever be paralysed by polio again.

What does the Global Polio Eradication Initiative need from the world to succeed?

Commitment and money! As public health practitioners and as parents, we believe that every child deserves to be protected from this preventable disease. And we believe that because eradicating polio is something that benefits us all - in perpetuity - we all share in the responsibility to make that happen.

Continued political support and advocacy is important, but words are not enough. We need governments to make sure they do everything possible to help us finish off the final 1% of polio in the world. We need them to provide support to those governments who are still struggling with the virus and to provide the polio partnership with the funds needed to get the polio vaccine to children everywhere, including the most remote, dangerous and difficult places in the world. We need governments to treat the polio funding gap of US$950 million as an emergency so that we don't have to deny children this vaccine.

How can ordinary people help?

The first thing you can do is to sign the petition to let world leaders know that you want them to make good on their promises to get polio finished. Presidents and prime ministers are, after all, answerable to their constituents. Follow The End of Polio on Twitter and Facebook  to find out about other simple actions you can take. Then, if you want to get further involved, you can join your local Rotary club. Rotary International is a fantastic organisation – it was a couple of Rotarians that started the whole global movement to eradicate polio and they continue to campaign, raise money and volunteer in polio-infected countries today. You can also donate 

You can make a difference. It is everyone’s responsibility to see polio eradicated. Once we do, we will have achieved something extraordinary for all the world’s children, forever.


 Watch Dr Aylward’s TED Talk on polio here. 

You can read an extended version of this interview here, on the End of Polio website.
Posted by Lauren O'Connor in Poverty for column Global Poverty Project - International on Jun 19th 2012, 12:33
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Tired? Hungry? ...Sick?
 
If you’re one of the more than 7,000 Australians currently Living Below the Line, you're probably starting to feel the effects of living on $2 worth of food and drink a day. I know I’m feeling tired, hungry, and if we’re being honest - a little bit grumpy as well.

But imagine if you had to add sick to this list as well.

When you survive on the equivalent of $2 a day; you can't afford for things to go wrong.

And yet something as simple as a mosquito bite can change your life.

For the 1.4 billion people living below the extreme poverty line (that's with the equivalent of $2AUD a day to cover all their daily needs, not just food); illness is a very real and constant threat.

Below the line, illness can be disastrous.

For starters, medical care is not always readily available. To access treatment you may need to find (and pay for) transport to a hospital. Often this means getting to the next major city - which can be several hundred kilometres away. The time you spend getting to the hospital then means you’re kept away from your work - and that don’t have the opportunity to earn your income for that day. Once you find medical care; that doesn’t mean its free... or even cheap. And you may be faced with a choice between eating, and buying medication. Even worse, if the person that illness strikes is the family breadwinner, the illness may leave them unable to work.

Unfortunately, limited access to basic health care and vaccinations means that people in extreme poverty are vulnerable to a myriad of illnesses - including many that young Australians have been lucky enough to be able to forget.

Let's take polio as an example.

Most young Australians will think of polio as only a vaccination. But for the poorest of the poor this is a disease that still causes paralysis and death in young children. Due to global collaboration over the past three decades, polio is now only endemic in three countries worldwide. But it continues to affect marginalised children: those in minority groups, mobile populations, remote villages or, conversely, in dense urban slums.

Once an extremely poor child gets polio, their entire future changes. Their ability to work and to access education is limited; even their chances of getting married decreases dramatically. Instead of being able to help their family work their way out of extreme poverty, their disability can lead them to be seen as a financial burden in families that are often already overburdened: deepening their cycle of poverty.

This is why the Global Poverty Project campaigns on preventable disease - we believe that no child should suffer or die from a disease we can easily and cheaply prevent. Eradicating polio, for example, would mean that more children would grow up to lead full and productive lives. And that's one effective way to reduce extreme poverty.

If you'd like to learn more about our campaigning work on polio, please visit www.theendofpolio.com.
Posted by Lauren O'Connor in Poverty for column GPP - Australia on May 10th 2012, 03:00
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