24 May 2012

UN / POLIO ERADICATION

Despite the dramatic drop in polio cases in the last year, the threat of continued transmission due to funding and immunization gaps has driven the Global Polio Eradication Initiative to launch an emergency action plan. The plan aims to boost vaccination coverage in Nigeria, Pakistan and Afghanistan – the three remaining polio endemic countries, to levels needed to stop polio transmission. FILE

Posted at: May 24, 2012 5:41 pm

Duration: 01:28

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STORY: UN / POLIO ERADICATION
TRT: 1.28
SOURCE: WHO / UNICEF / UNAMA 
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / NATS

DATELINE: FILE

SHOTLIST:

FILE – UNICEF – 15 MAY - JUNE 25, 2011, KANO, KANO STATE, NIGERIA

1. Med shot, polio affected men moving in traffic
2. Various shots, polio affected man moving around his workshop
3. Various shots, children being immunized

FILE – UNAMA – 21 SEPTEMBER 2010, KABUL, AFGHANISTAN

4. Various shots, mothers and children waiting for vaccination
5. Close up, baby getting vaccination
6. Med shot, mother with children

FILE – UNICEF – 26 FEBRUARY 2011, NAHQI, MOHMAND AGENCY, PAKISTAN

7. Med shot, doctor administering polio drops to five-month-old baby on his father's lap
8. Close up, baby getting polio drops
9. Med shot, doctor administering polio drops to five-month-old baby on his father's lap
10. Wide shot, doctor examining baby

FILE – UNICEF – 26 MARCH 2001, INDIA

11. Med shot, child crippled by polio walking in the village with his mother walking behind him

FILE – WHO – 12 JANUARY 2011, GENEVA, SWITZERLAND

12. SOUNDBITE (English) Bruce Aylward, Assistant Director-General, Polio, Emergencies and Country Collaboration:
"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."

FILE – UNICEF – 2000, INDIA

13. Wide shot, children suffering from polio in school with wheelchairs
14. Med shot, child suffering from polio sitting on a chair with leg braces

FILE – UNICEF – MAY 2011, MORADABAD, UTTAR PRADESH, INDIA
 
15. Med shot, child volunteers walking in an alley and shouting slogans for polio eradication
16. Close up, little girl being given the Oral Polio Vaccine

FILE – UNICEF – AUGUST 2009, MORADABAD, UTTAR PRADESH, INDIA

17. Med shot, health worker taking outside a house, mother and child in the background
18. Close shot, health worker's writing pad
19. Med shot, health workers administers oral polio vaccine to a child in her mother's arms
20. Med shot, health worker marking a house where children have been vaccinated

FILE – UNICEF – JULY 2011, N'DJAMENA, CHAD

21. Wide shot, men pushing polio sufferer
22. Wide shot, pushing polio sufferer

STORYLINE:

The UN-backed Global Polio Eradication Initiative warns that by some estimates, failure to eradicate polio could lead within a decade to as many as 200,000 children a year becoming paralyzed for life.

Despite a dramatic drop in worldwide polio cases in the last year, the threat of continued transmission due to funding and immunization gaps has driven the Initiative to launch an emergency action plan.

The plan aims to boost vaccination coverage in Nigeria, Pakistan and Afghanistan – the three remaining polio endemic countries – to levels needed to stop polio transmission.

However, the plan currently faces a funding gap of nearly one billion US dollars through 2013.

Health ministers meeting at the World Health Assembly in Geneva this week are considering a resolution to declare "the completion of polio eradication to be a programmatic emergency for global public health", in order to acknowledge the urgency of the situation.

In a news release issued by the Global Polio Eradication Initiative today (24 May), the head of the World Health Organization (WHO), Dr. Margaret Chan said that "polio eradication is at a tipping point between success and failure".

Polio eradication activities resulted in several landmark successes over the past few years. Only 55 cases have been reported during the first four months of 2012, a lower caseload than during the same period in any other year.

India, long-regarded as the nation facing the greatest challenges to eradication, was removed from the list of polio-endemic countries in February.

SOUNDBITE (English) Bruce Aylward, Assistant Director-General, Polio, Emergencies and Country Collaboration:
"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."

As recently as 2009, India had more polio cases than any country in the world.

But persistent efforts by millions of health workers made the impossible a reality. Going door-door in remote villages, heavily populated cities and towns, committed volunteers overcame the toughest of challenges.

In today's news release, UNICEF Executive Director Anthony Lake warns that despite these gains, "all our efforts are at risk until all children are fully immunized against polio".

Outbreaks in recent years in China and West Africa due to importations from Pakistan and Nigeria, highlight the continued threat of resurgence, the Initiative says.

The Global Polio Eradication Initiative is spearheaded by national governments, the World Health Organization (WHO), Rotary International, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and UNICEF, and supported by key partners including the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.