Ethiopia: ‘Ethiopia stays polio-free’ campaign

11/01/2020 Ethiopia, Health, World



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As the world commemorates World Polio Day, the World Health Organization, UNICEF and ROTARY reaffirm their commitment to continue to work with the Government of Ethiopia to ensure that Ethiopia remains polio-free, to maintain the success achieved in the certification of the WHO African Region as wild poliovirus free, according to the World Health Organization.

On August 25, 2020, the independent African Regional Polio Eradication Certification Commission officially declared the WHO African Region, comprising 47 member states, to be free from wild poliovirus.

Before 1996, when the program “Let’s Get Polio Out of Africa!” Once the campaign started, wild poliovirus used to paralyze around 75,000 children a year on the African continent. However, it has been four years since Africa reported a case of polio caused by wild poliovirus. This is a historic milestone for Africa.

In Ethiopia, the last indigenous case of wild poliovirus was reported in 2001. However, imported cases of WPV have been detected over the years, with the last case detected on January 5, 2014. Years of aggressive surveillance and response Through reactive and preventive mass immunization campaigns, including in hard-to-reach areas, along with cross-border collaboration, it ensured that no cases were recorded after 2014.

This achievement was achieved through the leadership of the Ethiopian Federal Ministry of Health, the commitment of frontline workers, and the generous support of polio partners such as WHO, UNICEF, ROTARY, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. of Diseases of the USA, The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, USAID. , CCRDA / CORE Group and other immunization partners.

As these organizations commemorate World Polio Day 2020, we recognize that global eradication of wild poliovirus has yet to be achieved and therefore the risk of importation and the ensuing outbreak remains a challenge. Therefore, the aforementioned organizations underscore the need to remain vigilant and strengthen routine immunization and disease surveillance to ensure that Ethiopia and neighboring countries remain polio-free until the day the organizations can come as a global community. to celebrate the eradication of the virus from the face of the Earth.

The theme for this year’s World Polio Day in Ethiopia is “Take Action, End the Disease Forever!” To achieve this ambitious goal, organizations must ensure that all children in under-immunized communities are vaccinated, with the goal of not leaving a single child behind and strengthening disease surveillance for early detection and response.

While the organizations celebrate Ethiopia’s wild poliovirus free status and the Africa region’s certification as wild poliovirus free, we remain committed to continuing our joint polio eradication efforts to sustain this incredible achievement. And the organizations call on the Government of Ethiopia and our immunization partners to renew their commitment until polio is eradicated around the world.

World Health Organization Regional Director for Africa Dr. Matshidiso Moeti, regarding World Polio Day 2020, said that World Polio Day is an opportunity to celebrate the incredible milestone achieved this year, of expelling the wild poliovirus of Africa. This is a reminder that vaccines work and that we can achieve tremendous goals when governments, healthcare workers, communities and partners come together.

He added that the people who worked tirelessly to achieve a wild Africa free from polio, and innovations such as the geographic information systems technologies used to combat this disease, are now engaged in responding to COVID-19 and other health priorities. And there is still work to be done on polio. Sixteen African countries this year have faced outbreaks of a rare form of the disease that affects children who have not been protected by vaccination. It is known as circulating vaccine-derived poliovirus.

As for him, where high-quality vaccination campaigns were carried out, some outbreaks were successfully stopped in early 2020. To reduce the risk of spreading COVID-19 in communities, vaccination campaigns were stopped in March But the leaders of the affected countries acknowledged that we cannot wait for the COVID-19 emergency to end to end the fight against polio.