12 Jan 2012

INDIA / POLIO

India appears to have interrupted the wild poliovirus transmission, completing one year without polio since its last case, a two-year-old girl in the state of West Bengal on 13 January 2011. WHO / FILE

Posted at: January 12, 2012 7:27 pm

Duration: 02:45

Available in: SD

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STORY: INDIA / POLIO
TRT: 2.45 
SOURCE: WHO / UNICEF
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / NATS

DATELINE: 12 JANUARY 2011, GENEVA, SWITZERLAND / FILE

SHOTLIST:

FILE – UNICEF – DATE UNKNOWN, INDIA

1. Wide shot, street scene with children
2. Wide shot, alley
3. Various shots, child being vaccinated

12 JANUARY 2011 – WHO - GENEVA, SWITZERLAND

4. SOUNDBITE (English) Bruce Aylward, Asistant Director-General, Polio, Emergencies and Country Collaboration:
"Just two years ago people were saying polio can't be eradicated because of the circumstances, unique circumstances almost of India. So what we are seeing today after twelve months without a child paralyzed by polio is that proof positive that polio can be eradicated, we can overcome the biological challenges, we can overcome the operational challenges to ensuring this disease is eradicated once and for all."

FILE – UNICEF - 6 DECEMBER 2010, RAMPUR RATNAKER, INDIA

5. Various shots, UNICEF Executive Director Anthony Lake administrating polio drops 
6. Med shot, Anthony Lake with the mother and the baby
7. Med shot, Anthony Lake with a young girl in his arms
8. Wide shot, Anthony Lake in the classrooms
9. Wide shot, crowd
10. Close up, mother and child
11. Various shots, Anthony Lake neo natal care unit

12 JANUARY 2011 – WHO - GENEVA, SWITZERLAND

12. SOUNDBITE (English) Bruce Aylward, Asistant Director-General, Polio, Emergencies and Country Collaboration:
"Perseverance, innovation, accountability linked with the financing that the government of India put in the program were the keys to make the proven strategies work even in such a challenging environment."

FILE – UNICEF - 6 DECEMBER 2010, RAMPUR RATNAKER, INDIA

13. Med shot, women entering makeshift clinic
14. Med shot, makeshift clinic with patients and doctor
15. Various shots, administering polio drop

FILE – UNICEF - 7 MARCH 2010, AJINGI, NIGERIA

16. Various shots, children being administered Polio drops

12 JANUARY 2011 – WHO - GENEVA, SWITZERLAND

17. SOUNDBITE (English) Bruce Aylward, Asistant Director-General, Polio, Emergencies and Country Collaboration:
"Northern Nigeria and Pakistan are now the key to completing global eradication. The challenge now, the priority now is applying the same lessons, the same ingenuity, the same innovation, the same accountability framework, the same kind of perseverance that we saw in India to get the job finished in those two countries."

FILE – UNICEF - 8 MARCH 2010, SUMAILA, NIGERIA

18. Various shots, a child being administered Polio drops
19. Med shot, looking at records
18. Various shots, children

STORYLINE:

India appears to have interrupted the wild poliovirus transmission, completing one year without polio since its last case, a two-year-old girl in the state of West Bengal on 13 January 2011.

If all pending laboratory investigations return negative in the coming weeks India will officially be deemed to have stopped indigenous transmission of wild poliovirus.

However, there remains no room for complacency. India must maintain sensitive surveillance and high childhood immunity against wild poliovirus to guard against any importation of polio until eradication is achieved globally.

This is a turning point for the entire Global Polio Eradication Program, because only two years ago India had 50 percent of the world's children who were paralyzed by polio.

Bruce Aylward, the Assistant Director-General for Polio Emergencies and Country Collaboration at the World Health Organization (WHO) in Geneva said today that r twelve months without a child paralyzed by polio is the "positive proof" that polio can be eradicated.

The scale of the eradication effort in India is mind-boggling: each year, more than 170 million children under the age of 5 are vaccinated in two national immunization campaigns, with up to 70 million children in the highest-risk areas vaccinated multiple times in additional special campaigns; the whole effort requires nearly a billion doses of oral polio vaccine annually.

Aylward said that perseverance, innovation, and accountability linked with the financing that the government of India put in the immunization program were the keys to make the proven strategies work.

The big challenge right now is ensuring the eradication of the number of polio-endemic countries which have never stopped the indigenous wild poliovirus transmission.

Aylward said that Northern Nigeria and Pakistan were now the key to completing that global eradication. He added that the priority now was to apply the same lessons to get the job finished in those two countries.

In 2011 Pakistan saw as alarming increase in polio cases and in Africa, active polio transmission continues in Nigeria, with outbreaks in West and Central Africa in the past 12 months reminding the world that as long as polio exists anywhere, it remains a threat everywhere.