Recently the Minister of Health called the press together and presented the WHO certificate of elimination to the President. He is reported to have said during the ceremony that "The Guinea Worm free certificate will further spur his (Jonathan's) administration's commitment to fight against many endemic diseases such as HIV/AIDS, Malaria, Tuberculosis and of course polio" and that "The certification by WHO is a global recognition of how far we have come and the success of the work that has been done to rid our nation of this scourge. Iruka Okeke contributes this insightful piece to put it all into context. Enjoy!
Was 2013 the year of the 'Almost Eradicated'?
By Iruka N Okeke
Eradication, the complete annihilation of a disease, is a rare goal and a rarer accomplishment. The World Health Assembly has signed onto only seven such programs in history. Three were terminated in failure (malaria eradication in the mid 20th century, yaws and yellow fever) and only two - smallpox and rinderpest - have succeeded so far. Good progress has however been made for guinea worm disease and polio. Both guinea worm and polio eradication programs are lagging more than two decades behind their original target dates but eradication is in sight and therefore programs must continue in spite of the challenges. Sadly, Nigeria is among the handful of countries that has struggled in the endgames of both eradication programs. Nigeria was the source of re-introductions to Cameroon in the 1990s and the principal reason why elimination in our neighbor was delayed. In 2008, with Ghana, Mali and Sudan, Nigeria was one of only four countries endemic for guinea worm. The story is similar but more drawn out for polio, where Nigeria, Afghanistan, Pakistan and India (the last now polio-free) were the last bastions and vaccine boycotts in Nigeria led to resurgence of the disease as well as export to polio-free countries.
[view whole blog post
]
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
See More
Report Abuse