Article Archive

A Pakistani health official says that for the first time in the country's history, all the previous month's environmental samples for polio have tested negative - a sign of progress in the campaign to eradicate the virus in Pakistan.  Dr. Rana Safdar, the head of the National Emergency Operation Center, said on Monday that a total of 40 samples were collected from 14 cities in mid-April under the supervision of the WHO, the World Health Organization. The negative samples, he says, show that the virus could eventually be eradicated through continued immunization campaigns.  Safdar says new campaigns have been planned in vulnerable areas starting in July after the end of the Islamic fasting month of Ramadan.

Polio invades the nervous system and can cause irreversible paralysis within hours - and WHO's ‎repeated warning is that as long as any polio virus is circulating, people are at risk.  But the world is ‎now on the brink of wiping out polio forever, with only 12 cases of the contagious viral disease ‎recorded worldwide so far this year - in Pakistan and Afghanistan.   ‎

In a related development, the United Nations chief on Saturday praised the “invaluable partnership” between Rotary International and the UN, telling delegates gathered in Seoul, South Korea, for the organization's annual international conference, that Rotarians had been instrumental in working with the UN to defeat polio.  “Our common activities are saving lives. And they are based on a spirit of trust. My main message is simple.  Just four words: 'thank you very much,'” Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said, adding: “You help the United Nations reach our goals. And you help the world understand the United Nations.”

 Ban noted that when Rotary International launched its campaign in 1985, more than 350,000 children were paralyzed by polio every year.  While individual Rotarians have generously contributed an astounding $1.2 billion to the campaign, they have also engaged donor governments to secure an additional $6 billion in funds, Ban  said.   “I congratulate Rotary International for helping reduce polio by 99 per cent,” said the UN chief, emphasizing that from hundreds of thousands of cases each year, now there are fewer than two dozen.  Africa is polio free, he continued, and also noted that while Afghanistan and Pakistan are still affected, the organizations are working hard to help them stamp out polio.

Full Article