Do you know that there would be more than 10 million children unable to walk in the next forty years if the world did not take the initiative to eradicate polio? Hence, polio is highly infectious viral disease, attacking the nerve system, and it is apt to cause complete paralysis within hours. Thus, the virus enters the human body via the mouth and propagates in the intestines. On the other hand, the primary symptoms for the disease are fever, exhaustion, headache, vomit, neck stiffness, and pains in the limbs. One case of every 200 cases sustains incurable paralysis, usually in the legs; whereas 5% to 10% of those sustaining polio die when their respiratory muscles stop performing their functions.
Date of the World Polio Day:
The World Polio Day is celebrated in the world on October 24th, 2012, under the theme “End Polio Now”. Thus, all the health experts agree to the necessity of making governments give eradicating polio the first priority. And it seeks to adopt the policies and provide the necessary finances to apply the set strategies in order to eradicate polio.
Meanwhile, the World Health Organization (WHO) seeks to eradicate polio through the polio- eradicating global initiative, which is the biggest health partnership based between the governmental and private sectors, and which managed to reduce polio cases by 99%. Therefore, polio only exists now in the most impoverished communities in the world and the most marginalized, as it is still rife among the most vulnerable children. As such, the goal which the initiative seeks is to vaccinate each child, without exception, with anti-polio vaccine, and guarantee world free from this disease, which is in the best interest of the next generations.
Number of Cases:
The number of polio-infected cases has reduced since 1988 by a percentage more than 99%; thus, estimates underline that the infected cases has reduced from 350 000, reported in this year in more than 125 countries, where the disease is epidemic, to 1352 cases, reported in 2010. Now, the disease is only epidemic in some areas, located in four countries in the world, which is the smallest geographical area recorded in history.
Strategies:
There are four main strategies to stop the spread of wild polio virus in the affected areas or the areas highly vulnerable to the risks of infection re-emergence. Thus, these strategies are:
- Vaccinating infants in their first years with four doses of the anti-polio oral vaccine, and guaranteeing highly-immunized coverage with this vaccine.
- Seeking, through the integral immunization activities, to administer complementary doses of the anti-polio oral vaccine for all the children less than five years.
- Detecting the wild polio virus through reporting on all the acute flaccid cases which inflict children, less than fifteen years, and examining them through laboratories.
- Undertaking comprehensive immunization processes, with specific goals when the scope of the polio spread is restricted to specific area.
Our Priorities in terms of Eradicating Polio:
If a single child remained infected with polio, all the countries' children would become vulnerable to the risks of getting infected.
- Stopping the spread of wild polio virus in the countries where it is epidemic.
- Putting an end to the re-transmission of the virus.
- Preventing from the new outbreaks, as the polio looks for new pockets in the inadequately- vaccinated children.
- Abridging the existing shortage in the financing field, as the success of the vaccination campaigns and detection processes depends on the adequacy of the finances which the granting bodies provide.
Internationally Approved Date: 24/10/2012
Locally Approved Date: 8/12/1433
Theme of the World Polio Day 2012:
“End Polio Now”
- Children at the age of 5 years or less.
- Adults.
- Those working in the medical field and interested in the disease.
- Those having weak immunization and traveling a lot.
Objectives and Messages of the World Polio Day 2012:
Purposes which the international initiatives seek to eradicate polio are:
- Stop the wild polio spread as soon as possible.
- Earn the official certification of eradicating polio all over the world
- Contribute to developing the health systems, enhancing the routine immunization activities, and detecting communicable diseases.
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