Polio campaign in Africa put on hold during coronavirus - The Guardian

Polio campaign in Africa put on hold during coronavirus - The Guardian
UN: New polio outbreak in Niger after vaccination suspended - ABC News
Polio workers distribute soap and information in fight against COVID-19 - Afghanistan - ReliefWeb

Posted: 28 Apr 2020 09:03 PM PDT

Vaccinations for up to 12 million children to prevent the spread of polio in Africa will be delayed, in a major redeployment of polio eradication resources to fight the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Polio prevention campaigns, which are vital to avert outbreaks, will be suspended until at least the second half of 2020, said Dr Pascal Mkanda, the head of polio for World Health Organization Africa. The decision will inevitably lead to a rise in polio cases.

"We took the difficult decision to suspend these plans and considered it would have a significant impact on preventing the spread of new outbreaks," he said. "New outbreaks of polio will appear because we will not be able to administer the vaccines in time."

The move is the "right decision", Mkanda said, "because we need to tackle Covid-19 and because the process of administering vaccinations can actually increase the spread of the virus".

The effect of the lack of vaccinations has already begun to emerge. On Saturday, Niger reported two new polio cases, affecting children in the capital, Niamey, and the Tillabéri region, according to the WHO. The cases are the first in the west African country since an outbreak which lasted two years was eradicated last December.

"Niger stopped the previous polio outbreaks by mounting high-quality mass vaccination campaigns," Mkanda said.

The country is one of 15 in Africa experiencing "vaccine-derived poliovirus outbreaks", with cases spreading among parts of the populations yet to receive a vaccination.

Polio, a highly infectious disease that spreads through contaminated water or food, often affects children under five, with about one in 200 infections leading to paralysis. Of those paralysed, up to 10% die because of crippled breathing muscles.

More than 95% of populations need to be immunised for polio to fully be eradicated.

The increase and success of preventive vaccination campaigns around the world – particularly in Africa and Asia, where the disease has been a scourge – had given international health authorities hope that polio could be eradicated. Yet the Covid-19 pandemic has significantly set back efforts.

Administering the oral polio vaccines would put patients at risk of contaminating Covid-19, the WHO said.

What is the World Health Organization?

The World Health Organization (WHO) was founded on the 7 April 1948, a date celebrated annually as World Health Day. As an agency of the United Nations, the organisation has developed into an international establishment which involves 150 countries and employs 7,000 people. WHO is responsible for the World Health Report and the World Health Survey. Since its establishment it has played a fundamental role in the eradication of smallpox, and currently prioritises diseases including HIV/AIDs, Ebola, Malaria and Tuberculosis.

WHO takes a global responsibility for the co-ordinated management and handling of outbreaks of new and dangerous health threats - like the Covid-19 coronavirus.

The current WHO director general is Dr Tedros Adhamon Ghebreyesus, elected for a five year term in 2017. Prior to his election, Dr Tedros served as Ethiopia's minister for foreign affairs. He also served as minister of Health for Ethiopia from 2005-2012 where he led extensive reform to the country's health system.

WHO's handling of the global pandemic has been criticised by US president Donald Trump, who announced in April that the US will no longer contribute to funding the agency.

Grace Mainwaring and Martin Belam

WHO teams focused on testing, contact tracing and social awareness to prevent polio have been entirely redeployed to help with coronavirus.

"What we are doing now on polio is to work very hard on preparedness and planning to be able to do more effective campaigns and really jump in as soon as the Covid-19 response activities have been stopped," Mkanda added.

The total number of Covid-19 infections in Africa is rapidly increasing – more than doubling in the last two weeks to 32,000 – with a similar increase in the number of deaths, to 1,400.

Concerns that an outbreak could pose profound challenges to their health systems led many African governments to adopt early and aggressive measures to contain it.

WHO officials on polio as well as other related health campaigns have been pooled to support health agencies across Africa.

UN: New polio outbreak in Niger after vaccination suspended - ABC News

Posted: 29 Apr 2020 04:32 AM PDT

The World Health Organization says Niger has been struck by a new outbreak of polio, following the suspension of immunization activities during the COVID-19 pandemic

MARIA CHENG Associated Press

April 29, 2020, 11:33 AM

2 min read

LONDON -- The World Health Organization says Niger has been struck by a new outbreak of polio, following the suspension of immunization activities during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The U.N. health agency reported that two children were infected by the highly infectious, water-borne disease and that one was paralyzed. The outbreak was sparked by a mutated virus that originated in the vaccine and was not connected to a previous polio epidemic Niger stopped last year, WHO said, in a statement last week.

"The poliovirus will inevitably continue to circulate and may paralyze more children as no high-quality immunization campaigns can be conducted in a timely manner," said Pascal Mkanda, WHO's coordinator of polio eradication in Africa.

In rare cases, the live virus in oral polio vaccine can evolve into a form capable of igniting new outbreaks among non-immunized children; stopping the epidemic requires more targeted vaccination.

Earlier this month, WHO and partners announced they were forced to halt all polio vaccination activities until at least June 1, acknowledging the decision would inevitably result in more children being paralyzed.

The Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says there have been 33,500 cases and 1,469 deaths as of Tuesday, but experts suspect the real numbers are far higher due to lack of testing and poor surveillance.

Eradicating polio requires more than 90% of children being immunized, typically in mass campaigns involving millions of health workers that would break social distancing guidelines needed to stop the spread of the new coronavirus.

Across Africa, 14 other countries are struggling to contain their polio epidemics, which have also been caused by a rare mutation of the virus in the oral vaccine. Health officials had initially aimed to wipe out polio by 2000, but that deadline has been pushed back and missed repeatedly.

Polio workers distribute soap and information in fight against COVID-19 - Afghanistan - ReliefWeb

Posted: 29 Apr 2020 01:45 PM PDT

Polio Social Mobilisers step up to aid Afghanistan's vulnerable communities.

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the polio programme has diverted thousands of personnel to fight the virus. Repurposing extensive experience eradicating polio, the programme is supporting country response in areas including information dissemination, disease surveillance, risk communications and data management.

In Kandahar, a 'poliovirus epicenter' where the programme has significant personnel, community social mobilizers stepped up in March to deliver soap bars and information on COVID-19 to some of Afghanistan's poorest and most vulnerable communities.

Social mobilizers are local people trained to communicate with the public about specific health issues in ways that are understandable and encourage behaviours to protect health. In Afghanistan, UNICEF coordinates a network of 3,750 mobilizers.

Social mobilizer Abdul Wahid explained the importance of his mission. "The families were especially happy with the soap distribution. If the social mobilisers were not here, people would have remained uneducated about COVID-19."

Just a few days after the decision to mobilize polio teams for COVID-19 response, the Kandahar team distributed thousands of soap bars and educational materials on the virus to communities across the province. Many of the families served have limited access to adequate sanitation products or facilities. Providing a bar of soap and demonstrating its use is a simple COVID-19 prevention measure.

During the distribution, the teams emphasized the importance of routine immunization continuing throughout the pandemic, reminding parents to take their children to health facilities. With house-to-house polio vaccination campaigns paused for the time being, many more children may be vulnerable to polio and other vaccine-preventable diseases if they do not receive vaccinations at health clinics.

The soap packaging carried a pro-vaccine message, reading 'let's come together for a polio-free Afghanistan'.

Ruksar, a colleague of Abdul, explained that she has noticed a change in how vaccine hesitant families react to the polio social mobilisers since the beginning of COVID-19 pandemic. ''The number of people who were interested exceeded our expectations. We were able to attract our communities' attention. Parents who used to refuse polio vaccine in campaigns have participated in COVID-19 discussions and eagerly asked for information.''

She added, ''During the last polio campaign, I had to wait 30 minutes in front of one house. When the door was opened, a man told me, "Go, we do not want to vaccinate our children. Never come here again". The same man looked for me in his neighbourhood during our COVID-19 information and soap distribution, and this time he was desperate for information. This shows that people in the community recognize that we are a source of information when they are concerned about their health, even if they have rejected polio vaccines in the past.''

Abdul agreed, saying, "The community has more trust in us now we are trying to minimize the risk of COVID-19 infection through public education.''

It is hoped that the trust built up between the mobilizers and communities during this time will translate into stronger relationships far into the future. This may help the polio programme reach out to children in families where vaccination has previously been viewed with suspicion.

Abdul is pleased to serve his community. He says, "I feel proud seeing the results of my work, when children receive routine immunization on time and pregnant women deliver safely at the hospital. Knowledge matters."

He adds, "Information at the time of crises can be lifesaving. The polio programme has a mission to protect every child against diseases – polio and now COVID-19."

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