In an all-too-rare example that crippling diseases can be fought and beaten in the developing world, a Canadian epidemiologist has helped Somalia rid itself of a disease that hasn’t threatened Canada in nearly 50 years.
From Reuters:
No Somali child has been paralysed by polio in the past year as a result of a huge campaign to repeatedly vaccinate 1.8 million children in the Horn of Africa nation.
Somalia, where more than 10% of the population live as refugees after 17 years of conflict, had wiped out the crippling disease in 2002 but it reemerged 3 years later from a strain that originated in Nigeria.
[…] Bruce Aylward, director of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative, said the campaign showed that the virus could [also] be stopped in highly insecure pockets of Pakistan and Afghanistan, and densely populated corners of India where sanitation facilities are lacking.
[…] There were 1,308 people crippled by polio worldwide last year, compared to about 350,000 yearly when the eradication drive started in 1988.
You don’t need me to go on and on about how ludicrous it is that although a safe, inexpensive vaccine has existed since 1955, huge pockets of the world have only recently gained access to it. So I won’t.
But this is big news in the fight against polio, and considering the Canadian content, should be news here too. But as much as I like the CBC, today’s lead story there is about how the Ontario Provincial Police were ready to forcibly take down a First Nations roadblock, but then didn’t. And everyone went home peacefully instead.
Eight months ago.
Incidentally, even on a day when a U.S. presidential candidate is on the hotseat for her tall tales about dodging fictitious sniper fire in Bosnia, CNN’s “most viewed story” is “ ‘Trek’s’ new Scotty staying true to role.” Apparently the guy from Shaun of the Dead is going to be playing the chief engineer in the new Star Trek prequel.
Intelligent quote from that story:
“I tried to approach the role like he did. He’s a Scottish engineer who works in outer space. He’s a bit of a brawler. I didn’t try to facilitate change,” the 38-year-old British actor said.
“I couldn’t possibly tell you what I wear in ‘Star Trek,”‘ Pegg said.
Photo from The End of Polio.
3 responses so far ↓
1 B // Mar 26, 2008 at 4:09 pm
I’m not sure why it should be front page news. It can definitely be reported *somewhere*, as it was in a brief in the Globe and Mail, but I don’t think it’s front page material. The WHO’s own statement on the matter admits that there are no guarantees that the disease won’t return from neighbouring regions and there are still numerous countries where polio still exists (approx. 10+?). Perhaps a piece in a Science or World section would be in order given the “Canadian content”, as you put it. But even so, I don’t see it garnering much interest. As you said, the vaccine has existed for over 50 years.
We have no centralized institution through which to manage such things as vaccinations, so I don’t see that this situation isn’t a perfectly natural result.
2 Rawda // Mar 26, 2008 at 5:00 pm
B, I think this piece of news should have been on the first page with a title like: OH MY GOD! WE ARE STILL FIGHTING POLIO!
Do you really care about who does what on start trek? Or who did what 8 months ago?
I mean, of course I want to be informed about everything, but as a person who lives in a safe world, I feel a little ridiculous when I’m exposed to news that someone else thinks is all I should know.
Knowing about some injustices around the world, make me want to know what’s REALLY happening in Abu Ghreib, Guantanamo Bay, how many people in Cuba earn more than 1USD, why the plague still exists in India, how many Palestinians were killed today and how many are in prisons, and how many people “disappeared” in certain areas of the Middle East because they criticized their regime, what’s happening in Tibet now and many other facts that we still have no idea about.
3 Jocelyne // Mar 27, 2008 at 9:13 am
OH MY GOD! WE ARE STILL FIGHTING POLIO!
Rawda I completely agree with your comment.
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