Rotary provides millions in polio funding as wild poliovirus type 3 is eradicated - Democratic Republic of the Congo - ReliefWeb
Rotary provides millions in polio funding as wild poliovirus type 3 is eradicated - Democratic Republic of the Congo - ReliefWeb |
| Posted: 30 Oct 2019 07:49 AM PDT  US$50 million will impact over 38 million children as the program reaches two key milestones: wild poliovirus type 3 eradication and Africa reaching three years with no wild poliovirus transmission EVANSTON, Ill. (October 30, 2019) — Rotary is giving US$50 million in grants to support the global effort to end polio. The funding will provide surveillance, technical assistance, and operational support for immunization activities, and will reach up to 38.4 million children with polio immunizations. The funding comes on the heels of the announcement that wild poliovirus type 3 (WPV3) has been eradicated globally. WPV3 is just the third human disease-causing pathogen to be eradicated in history, and the announcement means that there is just one remaining strain of wild polio left that continues to affect children. Rotary and its Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI) partners reached another major milestone in August, when Nigeria reached three years without a case of wild poliovirus, thus opening the door for the entire African region to be certified wild polio-free sometime in 2o20. "Both of these milestones are critical steps towards the ultimate goal of a polio-free world," said Michael K. McGovern, chair of Rotary's International PolioPlus Committee. "The eradication of wild poliovirus type 3 and Nigeria's good news demonstrate tremendous progress, but there is still much work to be done as we address the increase in cases in Pakistan and Afghanistan. In the face of challenges, reaching these historic benchmarks shows us that polio eradication is possible, and it's important that we harness this momentum to secure the funding and political support needed to end polio for good." Grants announced today will support ongoing eradication efforts in Nigeria as well as other African countries. Grants will also be directed to efforts in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Funding will be distributed as follows: Country/project, Grant
Rotary has committed to raising $50 million a year to be matched 2-to-1 by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, amounting to $150 million for polio eradication annually. While only Afghanistan and Pakistan continue to report cases of wild poliovirus, the remaining challenges to global eradication—like difficulty reaching children amid insecurity and conflict and weak health systems—have proven to be the most difficult. In order to meet these roadblocks head on and ensure the continuation of program efforts, the GPEI is hosting a pledging event at the Reaching the Last Mile Forum in Abu Dhabi, at which world leaders will gather and announce their commitment to ending polio for good. Rotary has contributed more than $2 billion to fight polio, and countless volunteer hours since launching its polio eradication program, PolioPlus, in 1985. In 1988, Rotary formed the GPEI with the World Health Organization, UNICEF, and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The Gates Foundation later joined. Since the initiative launched, the incidence of polio has plummeted by more than 99.9 percent, from about 350,000 cases in 1988 to fewer than 100 cases this year. About Rotary: Rotary brings together a global network of volunteer leaders dedicated to tackling the world's most pressing humanitarian challenges. We connect 1.2 million members from more than 35,000 Rotary clubs in almost every country in the world. Their service improves lives both locally and internationally, from helping those in need in their own communities to working toward a polio-free world. Visit Rotary.org and endpolio.org for more about Rotary and its efforts to eradicate polio. Contact: Audrey Carl, audrey.carl@rotary.org  |
| Evidence builds for virus as culprit in polio-like acute flaccid myelitis - NBCNews.com Posted: 21 Oct 2019 12:00 AM PDT  Scientists have found the strongest evidence yet that a virus is to blame for a mysterious illness that can start like the sniffles but quickly paralyze children. The poliolike syndrome, called acute flaccid myelitis or AFM, is very rare. Since the first reports from California in 2012, the U.S. has experienced an increasingly bigger outbreak every other year, from late summer into fall. Doctors have a chief suspect but proof that it's the culprit germ has been frustratingly elusive. Dec. 7, 201809:15 So researchers tried a new trick: They checked patients' spinal fluid for signs the immune system had fought an invading virus. Sure enough, kids who got sick harbored antibodies that target enteroviruses, just the viral family specialists believe is to blame. "This is circumstantial evidence that this is what's going on, but it's a powerful piece of circumstantial evidence," said Dr. Michael Wilson of the University of California, San Francisco, who helped lead the research. His team reported the findings Monday in Nature Medicine. Let our news meet your inbox. The news and stories that matters, delivered weekday mornings. Nailing down a suspect is key to better diagnosis and eventually finding a way to prevent or treat the illness, said study co-author Dr. Riley Bove, a neurologist at the university whose own son developed AFM at age 4. "If you don't have a cause, you can't have a vaccine," Bove noted. Wilson developed "a good enough microscope, in a sense, to find things they suspected were there." Some 590 cases of the ailment have been confirmed in the U.S. since the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention began counting in 2014. Cases spiked that year and in 2016 and last year, with just a few in the intervening years. So far, there have been 22 this year. Bove's son, Luca Waugh, illustrates the pattern: His whole family caught a cold in the summer of 2014 — and a few days later, Luca woke up with weakness in his neck that traveled down his shoulder. Despite fast hospitalization, within days he had body-wide paralysis and trouble breathing. He recovered gradually, and today still has some paralysis in his neck, shoulder and arm. Either a germ or the body's reaction to a germ was damaging nerves in the spinal cords of patients like Luca. The CDC noted that AFM spikes coincided with seasons when certain strains of enteroviruses — named EV-D68 and EV-A71 — were causing widespread respiratory illnesses. The problem: Doctors seldom found those viruses in the patients' spinal fluid, leaving doubt about the link. Antibodies programmed to track specific germs only wind up in spinal fluid if they fought infection there — what Wilson's team set out to find. The researchers customized a Harvard-developed tool to search for evidence of hundreds of viruses simultaneously — including herpes, measles, chickenpox, Zika and a whole list of enteroviruses. Add some spinal fluid, and any antibodies present would stick to their target, able to be identified. In tests of spinal fluid from 42 AFM patients and 58 children with unrelated neurologic illnesses, only enterovirus-targeting antibodies emerged as the potential culprit. Nearly three-fourths of patients harbored them, compared to less than 10 percent of other children. Further work is underway to narrow down the specific strains. "Before we develop antivirals or potential vaccines, you really want to prove the viruses are causing disease," said Dr. John V. Williams, infectious disease chief at Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh, who wasn't involved with the new study. "It's pretty compelling" evidence. Mysteries remain. Enteroviruses are hugely common, and doctors don't know why only a tiny fraction of those infected develop the ailment, Williams said. And as 2020 approaches, specialists are girding for another possible spike next summer. "There's a lot of dread," Bove said. Follow NBC HEALTH on Twitter & Facebook.  |
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