By Arnold R. Grahl
The detection of poliovirus, and even cases of polio, in places where it hasn’t been found for years has demonstrated once again that eradicating a human disease isn’t easy, especially in the final stages.
In recent months, an unvaccinated man in the United States was paralyzed. In the UK, poliovirus was detected in sewage. In Malawi, a child contracted polio. And Mozambique announced its first polio outbreak in 30 years.
But rather than be discouraged, Rotary and its partners in the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI) remain confident that they are making progress and can achieve their goal of a polio-free world. There are several reasons for this optimism.
A new oral vaccine, which has a substantially lower risk of causing vaccine-derived variant polio, is now available. This makes it less likely that the weakened strain of poliovirus that is used in the vaccine will mutate and spur outbreaks in communities where immunization levels are low, which has occurred in Africa, Asia, and the Middle East.
Moreover, the number of cases of the disease caused by the wild virus has been at historically low levels in Pakistan and Afghanistan, the two countries where poliovirus transmission has never been stopped. This presents an opportunity to seize the moment and stop the wild virus forever.
As World Polio Day on 24 October approaches, Rotary urges its members to tell their communities about the importance of vaccination. Global donors and national governments are also expected to announce new pledges to fund the GPEI’s 2022-26 polio eradication strategy. This strategy focuses on greater accountability from national governments about their work to eradicate wild polio and end outbreaks of polio caused by variant poliovirus.
With these kinds of sustained political and financial commitments, the world is still on the path toward an incredible accomplishment: making sure no person is paralyzed by polio ever again.