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Source: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/technology/science/why-wont-polio-go-away/article1561053/
Why won?t polio go away?
?Every time we think we have this battle won, the virus shows another face'
Andre Picard
Published on Friday, May. 07, 2010 6:11PM EDT Last updated on Friday, May. 07, 2010 6:20PM EDT
Polio, the Great Crippler, should have been wiped out as easily as smallpox. But 20 years into the eradication battle, the carnage continues.
In recent weeks, the virus slithered over the border from India to Tajikistan, infecting hundreds of children. While emergency vaccination programs roll out there, neighbouring Uzbekistan is reporting dozens of cases and there are growing fears that polio will spread throughout central Asia.
It shouldn?t be so. Central Asia was declared polio-free in 2002. And in endemic countries on the continent ? India, Pakistan and Afghanistan ? there has been significant progress in controlling the disease. Polio, a disease that terrorized Canada in the 1950s, before a vaccine was developed, was supposed to be consigned to the dustbin of history by now. Yet, it remains a Hydra-like foe: No sooner is it driven out of one country than it emerges in others.
With the announcement of a new strategy, which will probably be adopted at the World Health Assembly this month, the question remains: Why won?t polio go away? Why the tenacious hold, despite an investment of $8.2-billion (U.S.), a dedicated World Health Organization program and a Herculean human effort that has involved thousands of Rotarians, the world?s richest man, Bill Gates, and societal power brokers ranging from Indo-Afghan cricketers through to Muslim clerics.
The reasons are not strictly biological. ?Failure to finish the job is due to political and military pressures, along with some religious issues,? said Mark Joffe, an associate professor in the division of infectious diseases at the University of Alberta in Edmonton. ?But there are some technical challenges too...?
Why won?t polio go away?
?Every time we think we have this battle won, the virus shows another face'
Andre Picard
Published on Friday, May. 07, 2010 6:11PM EDT Last updated on Friday, May. 07, 2010 6:20PM EDT
Polio, the Great Crippler, should have been wiped out as easily as smallpox. But 20 years into the eradication battle, the carnage continues.
In recent weeks, the virus slithered over the border from India to Tajikistan, infecting hundreds of children. While emergency vaccination programs roll out there, neighbouring Uzbekistan is reporting dozens of cases and there are growing fears that polio will spread throughout central Asia.
It shouldn?t be so. Central Asia was declared polio-free in 2002. And in endemic countries on the continent ? India, Pakistan and Afghanistan ? there has been significant progress in controlling the disease. Polio, a disease that terrorized Canada in the 1950s, before a vaccine was developed, was supposed to be consigned to the dustbin of history by now. Yet, it remains a Hydra-like foe: No sooner is it driven out of one country than it emerges in others.
With the announcement of a new strategy, which will probably be adopted at the World Health Assembly this month, the question remains: Why won?t polio go away? Why the tenacious hold, despite an investment of $8.2-billion (U.S.), a dedicated World Health Organization program and a Herculean human effort that has involved thousands of Rotarians, the world?s richest man, Bill Gates, and societal power brokers ranging from Indo-Afghan cricketers through to Muslim clerics.
The reasons are not strictly biological. ?Failure to finish the job is due to political and military pressures, along with some religious issues,? said Mark Joffe, an associate professor in the division of infectious diseases at the University of Alberta in Edmonton. ?But there are some technical challenges too...?