No new Wild Polio cases reported this week.
What is that Polio Picture?
In this picture, a happy parent holds his child receiving the Oral Polio Vaccination in Pakistan as part of a National Immunization Campaign in October of 2020 which reached over 39 million children. Included in this total were many of the 700,000 newborns born each month in Pakistan who had not previously been immunized.
Progress! Rotary and our Global Polio Eradication Initiative partners are working to deploy a new polio vaccine – novel oral polio vaccine type 2 (nOPV2) – to better assist the countries fighting circulating vaccine-derived poliovirus outbreaks. We look forward to sharing more information on this innovative new tool when it is deployed in the very near future.
A Win Against Polio is a Win for Global Health!
With thanks to Rotary and United Kingdom funding, Iraq re-started Polio immunization campaigns in December, reaching over 1.7 million children and providing a boost to essential immunization services during the pandemic.
How Many Children have we saved from the paralysis of Polio?
That number has now reached 20 Million! That’s a number to celebrate and to share!
2020 Circulating Vaccine Derived Polio Cases – 943 – Afghanistan – 255 (0 in 2019), ,Angola – 3 (129 in 2019),Benin – 1 (8 in 2019), Burkina Faso – 59 (1 in 2019), Cameroon – 7 (0 in 2019), CAR – 4 (21 in 2019),Chad – 98 ((10 in 2019),China – 0 (1 In 2019), Congo – 1, Cote d’ Ivoire – 71 (0 in 2019),DRC – 75 (86 in 2019),Ethiopia – 21 (11 in 2019),Ghana – 11 (18 in 2019), Guinea – 39 (0 in 2019), Mali – 35, Malaysia – 1 (3 in 2019), Myanmar – 0 (6 in 2019), Pakistan – 128 (22 in 2019), Papua New Guinea – 0 (0 in 2019). Niger – 8 (1 in 2019), Nigeria – 7 (18 in 2019) Philippines – 1 (16 in 2019), Sierra Leone – 3 (0 in 2019), Somalia – 13 (3 in 2019), South Sudan – 38 (0 in 2019), Sudan – 56, Yemen – 29, Togo – 9 (8 in 2019),Zambia – 0 (2 in 2019).
361 Vaccine Derived Polio cases were reported in 2019.
Quote of the Day
“We must be willing to let go of the life we have planned, so as to have the life that is waiting for us.” – E. M. Forster
The Final Two Polio Endemic Countries:
Pakistan
84 Wild Polio cases – 2020. The most recent case had an onset of paralysis on 11/23/20.
147 Wild Polio cases – 2019. Nine Polio-Positive Environmental Samples were reported this week in Pakistan.
Afghanistan
56 Wild Polio cases – 2020. The most recent cases had an onset of paralysis on 10/19/20.
29 Wild Polio cases – 2019. No Polio-Positive Environmental Samples were reported this week in Afghanistan.
Our Goal is Global Polio Eradication!!
Terry Ziegler, Endowment/Major Gifts Adviser Rotary Region 26
