'We will finish polio before year's end,' say health ministers

Ministers of health from the six remaining polio-endemic countries have pledged to relegate polio to the history books within the next twelve months. At the end of a high-level meeting at World Health Organization Headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, the ministers on 15 January unveiled a bold new plan to immunize 250 million children multiple times during a series of massive polio immunization campaigns in 2004.

According to a polio eradication initiative press release that announced the ministers' decision, Afghanistan, Egypt, India, Niger, Nigeria, and Pakistan have beaten back the poliovirus to only a few remaining reservoirs. These data, and the introduction of aggressive new programs, present an unprecedented opportunity to eradicate polio.

The ministers noted that the success or failure of the polio eradication initiative now rests with the governments of the six polio-endemic countries. Polio transmission levels are at their lowest ever in the key countries of India, Pakistan, and Egypt, providing these governments with a rare opportunity to halt the spread of the virus. The first milestone in 2004 toward global polio eradication may well come from Egypt, according to epidemiologists, followed closely by India.

Nigeria currently presents the greatest risk to global eradication. In late 2003, immunization activities against polio broke off in the state of Kano, the last major polio reservoir in Africa, because of unfounded rumors that suggested the polio vaccine was not safe. As a result, immunization activities were stalled and polio crept back across Nigeria, spreading into the previously polio-free countries Cameroon, Chad, and through Niger, into Benin, Burkina Faso, Ghana, and Togo. The outbreak put 15 million children at risk, necessitating a massive immunization campaign across west and central Africa.

"It is the responsibility of every Nigerian to ensure polio is eliminated from every area, north and south, of our great country," said Nigerian Health Minister Eyitayo Lambo. "Nigeria is determined to break the chains of polio transmission for the sake of our children, our neighbours' children, and the children of the world."

Speaking from Delhi, India's Health Minister Sushma Swaraj, said: "Polio eradication is a tremendous challenge in a vast, densely populated country like India. But in 2003, we have shown the world we have the capacity, resources, and most importantly, the will, to vanquish this devastating disease." The minister referred to preliminary data from 2003, showing an 84 percent reduction in polio cases there compared with 2002.

"We have a unique window of opportunity in which to end polio forever," she continued. "There is no room in India's future for polio."

In 2003, funding shortfalls required most polio-free countries to stop their polio immunization campaigns, thereby leaving millions of children more vulnerable to poliovirus infections from endemic countries, underscoring the urgency of interrupting poliovirus transmission in the six remaining endemic countries.

To fully implement the bold eradication plans outlined by the health ministers requires the continued support of public and private donors.