Rome (Fides Service) - Although the number of new cases registered is in decline, polyomyelitis, which the World Health Organisation promised by means of a vast vaccination campaign to eradicate by the year 2000, still represents a threat in numerous countries and is re-appearing in countries said to be polio free. Since mid 2003, 18 polio free countries have been re-infected. In 6 of them Burkina Faso, Chad, Cote d’Ivoire, Central African Republic, Mali and Sudan the immunity level of the people is not high enough to prevent a return of the endemic.
The situation is most serious in Indonesia and Angola where the polio virus has appeared in the capital Luanda and various other parts of this large African country.
In Indonesia since March this year 226 children have been affected by paralysis caused by a polio virus “imported” at the beginning of the year. Limited at first to the provinces of Bantan and West Java the epidemic spread to the captial central Java and Sumatra. The situation puts other Asian countries at risk.
To stop the epidemic 750,000 vaccinators have just vaccinated 24 million children in the largest vaccination campaign ever organised in Indonesia. Vaccinations will be repeated in September and in November. Before the present outbreak there had been no cases of polio Indonesia since 1995.
The campaign will involve children in all of the 6,000 islands which make up Indonesia. Each child represents a real challenge. To meet the challenge 500 mobile vaccination teams have been activated to reach children on the move.
Since the world campaign to eradicate polio started in 1988, the number of cases dropped from 350,000 in 125 countries to about 700. At the end of 2004 polio was still endemic in six countries Nigeria, India, Pakistan, Niger, Egypt, Afghanistan. On 24 August this year the number of registered cases was 1,111. (AP) (31/8/2005 Agenzia Fides; Righe:31; Parole:366)