WHO declares polio global health emergency
Pakistan accounted for more than a fifth of the 417 cases reported globally in 2013 [AP]The World Health Organization (WHO) on Monday declared the international spread of wild polio virus in 2014 a public health crisis and asked 10 affected countries to treat the issue as a national emergency apart from imposing some conditions on travellers.
Monday’s emergency measures also apply to Syria and Cameroon, which along with Pakistan are seen as posing the greatest risk of exporting the crippling virus and undermining a UN plan to eradicate it by 2018.
Pakistan is in the spotlight, accounting for more than a fifth of the 417 cases reported globally in 2013.
The virus has recently spread to Afghanistan, Iraq, Israel and Syria, and has been found in sewage in the West Bank, Gaza Strip and greater Cairo, Bruce Aylward, WHO’s assistant director general, said.
It also appeared in China two years ago.
"In the majority of these reinfected areas, the viruses circulating actually trace back to Pakistan within the last 12-18 months," Aylward told reporters on a conference call.
Pakistan has called an emergency meeting of senior provincial and federal health officials on Wednesday to finalise how to implement the new requirements.
"The best option would be vaccinating the passengers at the airport departure where polio vaccination cards would be issued to the passengers. Human resource and vaccines would have to be worked out for the purpose," Saira Afzal Tarar, the state minister for health services, said in a televised broadcast.
"It would be most practical as people often have to fly in emergencies."
Aylward said Pakistan had done "tremendous" work to restore security in Peshawar after deadly attacks on health workers had impeded the fight against polio.
The race to meet a target to eradicate polio by 2018 was still feasible, he said.
Polio mainly affects children under five years old.
Source: Reuters and agencies
The Times of Earth ( TOE) founded in 1999, is a multilingual newspaper that is printed and circulated in many countries including some parts of the United States and Canada. It is considered as the largest trusted & respected international multimedia news/financial information source of the world.