The World Health Organization (WHO) has just declared a “state of public health emergency of global scope” for polio, this Monday, May 5, 2014. It had held an emergency meeting last week after the discovery, since January, of imported cases in Afghanistan, Iraq and Equatorial Guinea. This viral disease, very contagious, mainly affects children under 5 years old and can cause paralysis in a few hours.
An alarming spread
In Western countries, polio has disappeared. Almost eradicated thanks to vaccination, it still subsisted in some countries such as Nigeria and Pakistan, but the number of cases has fallen by more than 99% since 1988. A drop resulting from the global effort to eradicate the disease, according to the ‘WHO. However, in recent weeks, new events have prompted the WHO to review its position: seven countries have been reinfected in the past six months. “A situation in sharp contrast to the almost total interruption of the international spread of the virus in 2012,” said Dr Bruce Aylward, Assistant Director-General at WHO, in Geneva. The situation is all the more worrying as the period of the year when transmission traditionally increases, from May and June, has only just begun …
Vaccination should continue
Polio was once a major cause of disability around the world. This virus, which causes death in 5 to 10% of cases of paralysis, enters the body through the mouth and then develops in the intestines. It can then travel to the spinal cord or brainstem and cause irreparable damage. Vaccination is the only, albeit very effective, way to combat this disease, but the embrace should not be relaxed. “As long as a single child is infected, the risk of contamination from polio remains present,” notes Dr Jacques Allard. The vaccination work must therefore be continued, everywhere in the world ”.
