Skip to main content

WHO says spread of polio remains international health emergency

Polio WHO

LONDON: The spread of polio must still be classified as a public health emergency because, while progress has been made towards wiping out the disease, that progress is fragile, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Friday.

“We are so close to the elimination of polio, but we have to use all of our international tools to achieve this end,” Helen Rees, chair of the WHO’s international emergency committee, told reporters on a telephone briefing.

“The ongoing situation continues to require that a public health emergency of international concern should be applied.”

Latest WHO figures show there have been 27 cases of wild polio so far in 2018 – all of them in Pakistan and Afghanistan where the contagious viral disease is endemic.

Rees said the WHO was “very concerned” that this number was higher than last year, and urged governments against complacency in the battle to eradicate the paralyzing disease.

“Finishing this job remains an absolute emergency,” she said.

The polio virus, which invades the nervous system and can cause irreversible paralysis within hours, spreads rapidly among children, especially in unsanitary conditions in war-torn regions, refugee camps and areas where healthcare is limited.

The disease can be prevented with vaccination, but immunization coverage rates need to be very high and any gaps allow the virus to fight back.

The Global Polio Eradication Initiative, launched in 1988, originally aimed to end all transmission of the disease by 2000.

And while there has been a 99 percent reduction in cases worldwide since the GPEI launch, fighting the last 1 percent of polio cases has been far tougher than expected.

Efforts to eradicate the disease in Afghanistan and Pakistan have been undermined by opposition from the militants, who claim immunization is a foreign ploy to sterilize Muslim children or a cover for Western spies.

Friday’s statement by WHO polio emergency experts also expressed concern that after a 10-month period of no international spread of wild polio virus between Pakistan and neighboring Afghanistan, the last three months had seen cross-border spread recur in both directions.

The WHO emergency committee noted, however, that it has been four years since there was any international spread of wild polio outside of these two epidemiologically linked countries.

In Afghanistan, the number of polio cases has almost doubled in 2018, with 19 cases reported so far compared to 10 at the same time last year. The WHO said this was “due to worsened security and greater inaccessibility, and persistent pockets of (vaccine) refusals and missed children.”

In Pakistan, it said, the polio situation has stagnated, with eight cases reported so far this year, the same number as was reported for the whole of 2017.

The post WHO says spread of polio remains international health emergency appeared first on ARYNEWS.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

K-Electric fined Rs2 mn over weak power supply system

ISLAMABAD: The National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (Nepra) on Wednesday imposed a fine of Rs2 million on the K-Electric. According to a statement issued by the power regulatory authority, the K-Electric was penalized over non-compliance of performance standards, particularly its failure to restore power supply within the prescribed time frame and to ensure the safety of public in Karachi. Quoting media reports, it said large swathes of Karachi remained without electricity due to the tripping of almost 700 feeders during rainy weather in June last year, which resulted in long power blackouts ranging from 24 hours to 48 hours in almost 50% areas of Karachi. Further, there were also reports of fatal injuries to some people owing to electrocution. The Nepra took notice of the situation in Karachi and directed the K-Electric to immediately provide a detailed report on the tripping of feeders and electrocution incidents along with preventive and corrective steps taken by K-Elec...

10 creepy celebrity wax statues

Waxworks of celebrities, sports persons and politicians such as Tom Cruise, Barack Obama and Christiano Ronaldo are admired by people all over the world. The craft requires taking careful and accurate measurements to create these wax statues, which are then polished and perfected to make for an exact replica. Madame Tussaud’s is one of the most famous museums in the world that displays wax statues, however, not all wax museums in the world craft flawless statues. Compiled from Cosmopolitan India , here is a list of the creepiest celebrity wax statues. Barack Obama PHOTO: COSMOPOLITAN David and Victoria Beckham PHOTO: COSMOPOLITAN Jennifer Aniston PHOTO: COSMOPOLITAN Beyonce’s wax statue sparks outrage Jennifer Lopez PHOTO: COSMOPOLITAN Justin Bieber PHOTO: COSMOPOLITAN Justin Timberlake PHOTO: COSMOPOLITAN Aamir Khan PHOTO: COSMOPOLITAN Katrina Kaif PHOTO: COSMOPOLITAN London’s Tussauds gets to work on Trump wax figure Selena Gomez PHOTO: C...

Accountability court hears assets case against Ishaq Dar

ISLAMABAD: An accountability court in Islamabad on Wednesday resumed the hearing of a reference filed against former finance minister Ishaq Dar by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) for allegedly accumulating assets beyond his known sources of income.  Judge Muhammad Bashir is recording the statement of a prosecution witness, Ishtiaq Ahmed. At the previous hearing, the accountability judge had reserved his verdict on an application filed by two co-accused seeking acquittal in the case. Naeem Mehmood and Mansoor Rizvi, who are directors of Dar’s companies, had filed the application requesting the judge to exonerate them from all charges for want of evidence. Qazi Misbah, the counsel for the two co-accused, contended the prosecution has failed to provide compelling evidence to prove the allegations leveled against his clients. The third co-accused President National Bank of Pakistan (NBP), Saeed Ahmed, had already filed an application before the court for his acquittal wh...