From: <b class="gmail_sendername">Gopal Dabade</b> <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:drdabade@gmail.com">drdabade@gmail.com</a>></span><br><div class="gmail_quote"><br><br><div class="HOEnZb"><div class="h5"><p class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family:'Times New Roman',serif" lang="EN-IN"><a href="http://www.thehindu.com/health/article2904542.ece" target="_blank"><span style>http://www.thehindu.com/health/article2904542.ece</span></a></span></p>



<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:'Times New Roman',serif" lang="EN-IN">THE HINDU, 18^thFebruary 2012</span></p>

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0.25in;background-repeat:initial initial;background-image:initial"><b><span style="font-size:18pt;font-family:'Times New Roman',serif">‘Global polio eradication
programme not on track'</span></b></p>

<p style="margin-top:0in;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:15.0pt;margin-left:0in;background:white"><span style="font-size:13.5pt;text-transform:uppercase;background-image:initial;background-color:white;background-repeat:initial initial">N. GOPAL RAJ</span><i></i></p>



<p style="margin-top:0in;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:15.0pt;margin-left:0in;background:white"><i>Report
says notwithstanding the success in India, current stalemate is unsustainable</i></p>

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<span style="font-size:10.5pt">“It is now or never” for the global polio eradication programme, the
Independent Monitoring Board that periodically evaluates the worldwide effort
has warned.</span></p>

<p style="outline-style:none;line-height:13.5pt;margin-right:0in;outline-width:initial;outline-color:initial;text-align:justify;margin-left:0in;margin-bottom:15pt;margin-top:0in;background-repeat:initial initial;background-image:initial">

<span style="font-size:10.5pt">Unless an emergency response produced quick results, the programme could
“fail monumentally.” Notwithstanding the success in India, the current
stalemate in polio eradication, with over $ 1 billion being spent annually to
hold polio cases at low levels, was unsustainable, the Board pointed out in its
latest report.</span></p>

<p style="outline-style:none;line-height:13.5pt;margin-right:0in;outline-width:initial;outline-color:initial;text-align:justify;margin-left:0in;margin-bottom:15pt;margin-top:0in;background-repeat:initial initial;background-image:initial">

<span style="font-size:10.5pt">In April last, the Board called the need to interrupt polio transmission
by the end of 2012 a “global health emergency.” Last month, the World Health
Organisation's Executive Board took declared polio eradication a “programmatic
emergency for global public health.” The World Health Assembly, WHO's apex
governing body, will consider a similar resolution when it meets in May.</span></p>

<p style="outline-style:none;line-height:13.5pt;margin-right:0in;outline-width:initial;outline-color:initial;text-align:justify;margin-left:0in;margin-bottom:15pt;margin-top:0in;background-repeat:initial initial;background-image:initial">

<span style="font-size:10.5pt">Reiterating its view that the Global Polio Eradication Initiative was
not on track to meet the goal of stopping polio transmission by this year-end,
the Board, meeting recently in London, noted that there were just two possible
outcomes.</span></p>

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<span style="font-size:10.5pt">“Polio will be eradicated from the world, or it will not. The programme
will succeed spectacularly or fail monumentally.” If the eradication effort did
not succeed soon, funding for it would dry up and country workers risked
becoming increasingly fatigued. “Failure would unleash the virus, paralysing
hundreds of thousands of children. This prospect seems unthinkable,” the Board
said.</span></p>

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<span style="font-size:10.5pt">Congratulating India on not having polio transmission for more than a
year, the Board said this success showed that unswerving political commitment,
outstanding public health leadership, clear lines of accountability,
intolerance of weak performance and the systematic enforcement of best practice
could stop polio. “Elsewhere in affected countries, programmes are falling
short in most, if not all, of the areas where India has excelled.”</span></p>

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<span style="font-size:10.5pt">In sharp contrast, the other three countries where polio was still
endemic — Pakistan, Afghanistan and Nigeria — each had more polio cases in 2011
than in 2010. Another three countries had persistent polio transmission.</span></p>

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<span style="font-size:10.5pt">The Board went out of its way to emphasise the importance of the “humble
vaccinator.” Too many of these workers “are underrated, rarely thanked,
frequently criticised, often under-paid, poorly motivated and weakly skilled.”
It was the eradication programme's responsibility to value, train and inspire
this immensely important group of people, arguably the most important in the
programme.</span></p>

<p style="outline-style:none;line-height:13.5pt;margin-right:0in;outline-width:initial;outline-color:initial;margin-left:0in;margin-bottom:15pt;margin-top:0in;background-repeat:initial initial;background-image:initial">
<span style="font-size:10.5pt">Failure will unleash the virus, paralysing
hundreds of thousands of children</span></p>

<p style="outline-style:none;line-height:13.5pt;margin-right:0in;outline-width:initial;outline-color:initial;margin-left:0in;margin-bottom:15pt;margin-top:0in;background-repeat:initial initial;background-image:initial">
<span style="font-size:10.5pt">Programme will succeed spectacularly or fail
monumentally</span></p><div><br></div><br></div></div></div><br>