The progress towards eradication of poliovirus globally is one of the greatest success stories of the global health community. When the Global Polio Eradication Initiative started in 1988, polio paralysed more than 1000 children worldwide every day. Since then the global incidence of wild poliovirus cases has decreased by 99.9%, …
India’s lessons that finally led to eradicating crippling polio reached Nigeria after it sought India’s expertise recently in combating the virus. While India was taken off polio endemic list this year after it did not report any polio case, Pakistan, Nigeria and Afghanistan have remained to be few countries that …
Saudi Arabia is to give $200 million to Pakistan to strengthen its vaccination programme meant for fighting childhood diseases, according to former Saudi health minister Dr Hussain A Gezairy. “The Islamic Investment Bank of Jeddah will shortly give the grant to Pakistan to help it fulfill the national obligation of …
Countries in East Asian region are forecast to be free from polio disease by early 2014, a WHO top official said here Thursday. Eleven countries in Southeast Asia are now on track to declaring the region polio free, said Dr Margaret Chan, WHO director general, while addressing the organization's regional …
The CORE Group Polio Project (CGPP) and its partners in India, Angola, and Ethiopia have led successful social mobilization efforts to reach difficult-to-access populations critical for polio eradication. These include extremely poor rural and urban communities, ethnic and religious minorities who resist immunizing their children, and others such as newborns, …
How the battle that won India’s war against polio was fought in Moradabad, Uttar Pradesh A Friday evening. A muezzin in Pakbada, a densely populated village in Moradabad district in Uttar Pradesh, summons the faithful for prayers. He ends his call by reminding them that the next Sunday is Polio …
Polio vaccinators failed to reach 313,386 children in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in the recent three-day immunisation campaign, according to a World Health Organisation monitoring report. The report seen by Dawn said oral polio vaccine (OPV) couldn’t be administered to 2.1 million children in the country from July 16 to July 18 …
Polio virus has been found in the sewage water samples collected from Gadap Town, Karachi, after a gap of about four months. According to a press release issued by the World Health Organization (WHO) on Sunday, Gaddap Town is one of the polio virus reservoirs in the country and a …
WHO and partners hope that they can fi nally rid the world of polio. But insurgency, Taliban-initiated boycotts, and a US$1 billion funding defi cit will not make it an easy task. Dara Mohammadi reports.
Around 22,000 Pakistani children are at risk in Karachi after the World Health Organisation (WHO) suspended polio vaccinations over a spate of bloody shootings, a UN official warned on Thursday. WHO, a partner in government efforts to eradicate the disease, suspended activities in part of Pakistan's largest city, Karachi, last …
Govt on Monday postponed a polio immunisation campaign in parts of its tribal belt, jeopardising the health of more than 350,000 children after the Taliban banned inoculations. Local Taliban and warlord Hafiz Gul Bahadur, whose followers are fighting Western troops in Afghanistan, banned the vaccinations in the north-western region of …
Conflict in Afghanistan and vaccination problems in Pakistan have led to a rise in polio cases there, imperilling efforts to wipe out the disease worldwide, a study said Wednesday. Newly introduced vaccines had the potential to eliminate polio in these countries if sufficient numbers of children could be reached, according …
In further evidence that confirms India’s fear of importing polio virus from neighbouring countries, a recent study has revealed that a major chunk of children below three years in Pakistan and Afghanistan are not receiving the oral polio vaccine. According to the study published in Lancet, experts found a sharp …
Islamabad: In another setback to Pakistan's efforts to eradicate polio, the Taliban has banned a vaccination campaign in the restive South Waziristan region till the US halts its drone strikes in the tribal belt, a bizarre diktat that will affect 80,000 children. A pamphlet distributed by the Mullah Nazir faction …
The recent act of Taliban blocking polio vaccination drive in Waziristan has had the health authorities in India worried. While India has not reported any polio case for over a year now, the cross border polio importation threatens India’s success over crippling polio virus. Given the incredible success, recently, the …
A powerful Pakistani Taliban faction has said it will not allow an anti-polio campaign to be conducted in its stronghold of North Waziristan tribal region as long as US drone strikes continue in the area. The group led by commander Hafiz Gul Bahadur distributed a pamphlet on Saturday that announced …
WASHINGTON, 15 JUNE: US secretary of state Hillary Clinton congratulated India on having a full year without a single polio case and said the country, along with Ethiopia, is exemplary in stepping up and taking responsibility of child mortality. “Ethiopia and India are two of the countries hit hardest by …
Less than four months ago the world was cheered to learn that India had gone a full year with no new cases of polio - a landmark that left only Pakistan, Afghanistan and Nigeria on the World Health Organization's list of countries where the disease is endemic. But the battle …
For reducing morbidity, mortality and disabilities from the six serious but preventable diseases—that is, tuberculosis, diphtheria, pertussis, tetanus, poliomyelitis and measles—the government of India initiated Expanded Programme on Immunisation by making free vaccination services easily available to all eligible children. Despite considerable gains in immunisation coverage, a large chunk of …
India's success in polio eradication has infused positive energy into the global campaign against the disease, Bill Gates, founder-chairperson of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, said on Thursday. Terming India's experience with polio eradication a “big thing,” he said he had spent more time on this programme than anything …
A nine-member Pakistani delegation has arrived in India to learn from its experience of polio eradication. Pakistan saw a manifold rise in polio cases this year, and is one of the three countries, along with Afghanistan and Nigeria, where the infectious viral disease is still prevalent. India became polio-free in …
