The world has "a window of opportunity" to eradicate polio, warn experts



[ad_1]

TThere is a "window of opportunity" for the world to write polio in history books, warned experts who launched a new five-year plan to eradicate.

The strategy for the final phase of polio, released on Tuesday, indicates that efforts to eradicate the latest cases of the disease are proving difficult because of war, mbad migration and failing health systems – which means many children are absent and do not receive essential vaccines.

This highly infectious childhood disease has been the subject of a concerted elimination campaign since the 1980s, when approximately 350,000 children in 125 endemic countries were infected each year.

By 2018, this number was more than 33 cases in Afghanistan and Pakistan – with Nigeria, these are the only countries in the world where wild poliovirus remains endemic.

The new strategy, published by the Global Polio Eradication Initiative, says reaching these children is "the main underlying challenge" in an attempt to stop all of them. new cases of debilitating disease. Vaccination is the only way to prevent the disease, which is incurable.

[ad_2]
Source link