NOTE: This Message was originally addressed to Tom Mckeever
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ckeever
                           --------------------
Date:         Fri, 22 Sep 1995 00:54:44 GMT
Sender: SJU Polio and Post Polio Syndrome List 
From: Steve Lancaster 
Press Release WHO/25 - 6 April 1995
GLOBAL POLIO INCIDENCE DECLINES BY 82 PER CENT
        Poliomyelitis cases have declined by 82% since 1988 when the
World Health Organization (WHO) resolved to eradicate the disease
from the world.  Dr Ralph Henderson, WHO's Assistant
Director-General, announced that only 6,241 cases of polio were
reported worldwide during 1994 compared to 35,255 in 1988.
        Vast areas of the world are becoming polio-free. According to
WHO, there are now 145 polio- free countries in the world.  "We are
on line to eradicate the disease by the year 2000 provided we keep
the momentum and concentrate resources on those areas of the world
which still suffer from polio", comments Dr Henderson.
        There are still two geographical areas where polio
eradication efforts need to be intensified and extended, namely,
parts of the Indian sub-continent and Central and Western Africa. The
former accounts for 75% of the global polio incidence. It should be
noted though, that global polio reporting is incomplete. Some
countries, for instance, do not record polio cases at all.  WHO
estimates that on average less than one case out of 10 is being
reported.
        The occasion of this year's World Health Day is being used by
18 countries of the Middle East, the Caucasus, and Central Asia
Republics (MECACAR) to carry out two-round National Immunization
Days. In the course of this largest ever multi-country immunization
effort over 60 million children will be immunized.
        In spite of adverse conditions - many of the participating
countries are going through a painful phase of economic and social
restructuring while others are in the midst of military conflict and
social strife - the first round of immunization went remarkably
well.  Despite the loss of its vaccine stocks and vaccine
refrigeration facilities in a recent artillery attack on Kabul, the
National Immunization Programme in Afghanistan is firmly on course to
reach two million children with its immunization campaign scheduled
for 29 April through to 4 May 1995. During last year's immunization
campaign the fighting was stopped across Afghanistan to allow all
children to be immunized.  Truces for immunization have also been
previously declared in El Salvador, Lebanon, Sudan, and the
Philippines.
        Apart from the MECACAR countries, an additional 14 countries
around the world will be conducting National Immunization Days
reaching a further 45 million children.
        China holds the world record in mass immunization - in 1993
and 1994, it twice managed to immunize 83 million children in the
course of two days.  China's success in reducing dramatically polio
incidence in the country is the key element for the whole of the
Western Pacific Region to become the second polio-free area in the
world.  The first region was the Western hemisphere where the last
polio case was recorded in Peru in August 1991.
        "Polio eradication is too big a job for any organization to be
able to do it single-handedly", explains Dr Henderson.  "From the
very beginning of the global polio eradication campaign WHO has been
privileged to work very closely with a coalition of partners ranging
from UNICEF to Rotary International and the US Centres for Disease
Control and Prevention".
        "UNICEF has participated fully in this endeavour and has
worked very closely with WHO, Rotary International and other partners
and is very pleased with the progress in the Americas, East Asia, and
the Middle East and North Africa", comments Dr Terrel Hill, Principal
Advisor, UNICEF. "However, much more needs to be done and we welcome
the World Health Day theme "A World Without Polio". The multi-country
activities being implemented on World Health Day will provide an
impetus for maintaining political will and the global partnership,
reaching the previously unreached children, improving disease
surveillance, and assuring the achievement of other goals as well.
UNICEF  procured and shipped more than 180 million doses of polio
vaccine during the last five months in readiness for the National
Immunization Days coinciding with World Health Day".
        The global effort to eradicate polio is an historic
collaboration between the public and private sectors. Rotary
International is the first private sector organization to provide
internationally coordinated support for a public health campaign.
"Through the US$ 246 million PolioPlus Programme, Rotary
International provides both funds for vaccine and the organizational
and promotional skills of tens of thousands of Rotarians", says Dr
John Sever, General Coordinator of Rotary's PolioPlus Task Force.
        Immunization programmes are very costly. Since the last polio
outbreak in 1978, the United States of America has been spending over
US$ 250 million annually on polio immunization.  Once eradication is
achieved and polio immunization can be stopped, this money will be
saved. Additional savings will come from a reduced need to provide
medical care and rehabilitation services to polio victims.
        Smallpox eradication - one of the most significant
achievements in the history of public health - demonstrated the
enormous cost effectiveness of disease control programmes. Since the
last case of smallpox was detected in Somalia in 1977, the world has
saved over US$ 20 billion. The potential worldwide savings from polio
eradication have been calculated to be as much as US$ 3 billion each
year.
        "But before we can sit back and enjoy the financial and public
health benefits of polio eradication, the job has to be finished",
says Dr Jong-Wook Lee, Director of the Global Programme for Vaccines
and Immunization. "The polio-endemic countries meet 80% of the costs
of polio eradication. But they do need help. The remaining 20% needed
from external assistance amounts to US$ 100 million a year right up
to the year 2000". Although a single dose of the oral polio vaccine is
inexpensive - UNICEF price per dose is only US 9 - the required
volume of the vaccine makes it the most expensive component of the
eradication campaign, the other four elements being logistics,
personnel, laboratory services and research.
        "Polio, universally feared just some 40 years ago, was
successfully controlled in industrialized countries thanks to the
development of effective vaccines and large-scale immunization
programmes", explains Dr Hiroshi Nakajima, WHO's Director-General,
"Polio has now been forgotten by the citizens of these nations, but
because polio is highly infectious every country without exception
will have to continue its polio immunization programmes until all
countries of the world are polio-free".
-------------------
        For further information please contact Mr Valery Abramov,
Health Communications and Public Relations, WHO, Geneva.  Tel. No.
(41 22) 791 2543.  Fax No. (41 22) 791 4858.
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