Yemen will take years to get rid of polio [Archives:2006/933/Local News]
SANA'A, March 25 ) According to an international expert, it will be several years before Yemen can be declared free of polio.
“Yemen needs between four to five years to be free from polio again because we must conduct two to four immunization campaigns,” said Dr. Hashim Al-Zein, World Health Organization (WHO) country representative. He confirmed to media that the number of confirmed polio cases in Yemen has risen following discovery of a fresh case in February. “The number of confirmed polio cases has reached 474, as a new case was discovered last month in Ibb governorate, 150km south of Sana'a.”
Al-Zein was expected to launch a new immunization drive in April or May, targeting some four million children under age 5. There have been seven such anti-polio campaigns in Yemen, the last of which was launched December 2005. “This campaign is very important to control the disease,” Al-Zein noted. “We must enhance children's immunity to avoid reactivation of the polio virus. We also must target newborn infants.”
WHO suggests that low immunization rates among Yemeni children may facilitate the virus's spread. Between April and November of last year, the Health Ministry confirmed a total of 473 polio cases, including six fatalities.
The first Yemeni children found to have polio in April 2005 were 18 months to 7 years old, all from the Red Sea port of Hodeidah. They first showed signs of paralysis in February or early March. Experts say it can take weeks to confirm polio cases in poor countries like Yemen because stool samples must be sent to distant laboratories. Virus samples have been sent to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta for genotyping, which should reveal their origins.
Experts said all of the infected children had been vaccinated, but apparently not enough times. In countries with hot weather, open sewers and many intestinal viruses, it can take six to eight doses of polio vaccine to produce the same immunity that three or four doses do in cooler, cleaner countries.
According to WHO, Yemen accounted for 36 percent of 1,310 polio cases registered worldwide in the first nine months of 2005.
The Ministry of Public Health and Population organized the anti-polio campaigns in cooperation with WHO and UNICEF in order to continue efforts to curb the disease's spread in Yemen.
However, during last year's vaccination drives, many parents refused vaccinations for their children, believing the shots could result in infertility. A number of local religious leaders also cautioned parents that the vaccinations were dangerous.
However, according to health workers, there has been a recent sea of change in citizens' attitudes as a result of awareness campaigns also involving progressive religious leaders.
Polio is an infection chiefly affecting children and young adults which can result in permanent paralysis of limbs. In its most perilous form, infection attacks the brain, causing complications sometimes resulting in death.
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