Increase in polio cases disappoints campaigner
INCREASING figures of polio are disappointing to a campaigner looking to wipe out the disease, but she is hopeful that progress is being made.
Rotary International clubs have been instrumental in the step to eradicate the virus as part of the original Global Polio Eradication Initiative founders.
Pakistan and Afghanistan are now the last remaining countries where the ‘wild’ variant of the virus is still endemic.
Pakistan has recorded 41 cases so far this year, while Afghanistan has confirmed 18. In 2023 there were just 12 across both countries.
Rotary Club of Guernsey member Jannine Birtwistle has been involved in the campaign since 1989 and said that in Pakistan and Afghanistan volunteers were working in some of the most remote areas of the world.
‘If you look at where we are now compared to where we were, we have had a huge amount of success in fighting the virus,’ she said.
‘We are now able to identify where specific strains come from and ascertain how they enter a country.
‘The increasing figures seen over the last year are disappointing but are more a consequence of world events.
Gaza has seen its first polio case in 25 years after a 10-month-old baby has been partially paralysed after contracting the virus. The area is now seeing a huge vaccination effort, despite the ongoing conflict.
Poliovirus is most often spread through sewage and contaminated water and is highly infectious.
It mainly affects children under the age of five.
There is no cure for the disease, and paralysis caused by an infection is irreversible and potentially fatal.
‘The situation in Gaza should be of concern to the whole world,’ said Mrs Birtwistle.
‘Immunisation drops cost just 20p, add in the transport and other costs and it works out at about £3 a child.
‘But every one pound donated is matched by £2 by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, so that £1 will see a child vaccinated.
‘The public of Guernsey have been so generous and I hope they can continue to support us.’
It had been hoped that wild polio would be eradicated by 2026, but that has now been extended to 2027.
While it is hoped vaccine-derived polio – the type seen in Gaza, which can occur where countries have very low immunisation rates – will be eradicated by 2029.
If eradicated it will be only the second human viral disease to be eradicated, after smallpox.
