Pakistan says Facebook to help in fight against polio

Pakistan says Facebook will help the country in its fight against polio after authorities blamed anti-vaccine content posted last year on the social network site for a leap in the number of cases.

Pakistan is one of only three countries where polio has not been eradicated, but a years-long effort began to show fruit with a major drop in cases from 2016.

By 2018 just 12 cases had been recorded, but to the dismay of Pakistani authorities and the World Health Organization, that number soared to 136 last year. 

Pakistani officials quickly tied the surge to a slew of fake news reports and videos claiming many children had been killed by the vaccine that garnered thousands of views and shares on social media. 

They called on Facebook do more to remove harmful anti-vaccine content from the site, saying it was jeopardizing eradication initiatives and putting the lives of polio workers at risk. 

Health authorities later said Facebook had removed dozens such videos.

This week a delegation from the company visited Islamabad and reaffirmed their commitment to the campaign, a Pakistani government statement said. 

"We stand behind the national and global efforts to create a polio-free world and will continue to support these efforts," Rafael Frankel, a Facebook regional director, was quoted as saying in a statement released by Pakistan's ministry of health.

Dr Zafar Mirza, a Special Assistant to Prime Minister Imran Khan on health, highlighted the importance of communicating correct health information online and stressed "the need to counter harmful content on social media".

Facebook did not immediately respond to AFP's request for comment.

Vaccination campaigns have faced stubborn resistance for years in Pakistan, with many refusing to have their children inoculated because of misinformation and conspiracy theories.

Islamist opposition to all forms of inoculation grew after the CIA organised a fake vaccination drive to help track down Al Qaeda's former leader Osama Bin Laden in the Pakistani city of Abbottabad.

As Pakistan tries to reach its goal of eliminating polio, the growing global movement against vaccinations, fuelled by social media, has presented a new challenge.

Afghanistan and Nigeria are the two other countries where the disease has not been entirely eradicated, although the latter is expected to be declared polio-free later this year.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

2 of 3 strains of polio viruses eradicated in 'historic' step: WHO

LONDON - The World Health Organization welcomed a "historic step" towards a polio-free world on Thursday as an expert panel certified that the second of three types of the crippling virus has been eradicated globally.

The announcement by the Global Commission for the Certification of Poliomyelitis Eradication means that only wild polio virus type 1 is still circulating after type 2 was declared eradicated in 2015, and type 3 this week.

Global polio cases have been cut by more than 99% since 1988, but type 1 polio virus is still endemic in Pakistan and Afghanistan, where it has infected a total of 88 people this year. That is a resurgence from a record low global annual figure of 22 cases in 2017.

"The eradication of wild polio virus type 3 is a major milestone towards a polio-free world, but we cannot relax," said Matshidiso Moeti, the WHO regional director for Africa.

Seth Berkley, chief executive of the GAVI vaccine alliance, said it was "a tremendous victory in the fight against polio".

Polio invades the nervous system and can cause irreversible paralysis within hours. It cannot be cured, but infection can be prevented by vaccination - and a dramatic reduction in cases worldwide in recent decades has been due to intense national and regional immunization campaigns in babies and children.

In unvaccinated populations, however, polio viruses can re-emerge and spread swiftly. Cases of vaccine-derived polio can also occur in places where immunity is low and sanitation is poor, as vaccinated people can excrete the virus, putting the unvaccinated at risk.

The Philippines last month said it was planning an emergency vaccination campaign after polio re-surfaced and caused the first two recorded polio cases there for 20 years.

Moeti urged governments to be vigilant: "Countries must strengthen routine immunization to protect communities, ramp up routine surveillance so that we are able to detect even the slightest risk of polio re-emerging," she said in a statement.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

India's quest to end Polio

MANILA, Philippines — Later this month, India will be removed from a dwindling list of countries where polio is considered endemic, a huge achievement made possible by people like Madara, a 76-year-old street hawker.

At a temporary immunization camp in a slum in the northern district of Ghaziabad, 23 kilometers (14 miles) from New Delhi, he is busy at work shepherding boisterous children into queues.

All around, social workers break open tiny bottles containing a polio vaccine, selecting children from the thronging crowd of toddlers and babies and squirting two drops into their mouths.

Madara, a stick-thin resident from a nearby slum, says he began volunteering to help with the vaccination efforts six years ago when he realized he could use his authority as an elderly figure to encourage participation.

"I decided to get involved because I wanted to do something for the future of our children here," Madara told AFP.

Most of the youngsters, whose parents are often rag-pickers or hawkers, live in the nearby tarpaulin-covered homes, a cramped zone of shanties where sanitation and awareness about hygiene is poor.

Polio, which can be deadly and also causes deformed limbs, spreads via the fecal matter of victims, making slums particularly high-risk areas.

Lured by the offer of bright plastic whistles and paper masks, children were keen to leave their homes, forming a disorderly crowd around the vaccinators as they dispensed the drops to infants and under-fives.

India last reported a fresh polio case more than 12 months ago after monumental efforts by millions of social workers and volunteers who have administered 900 million doses of the vaccine in the last year alone.

If all pending lab tests for the virus return negative as expected, the World Health Organization will remove India from its list of "polio endemic" countries this month, leaving just Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Nigeria in this category.

As well as polio camps like this one in Ghaziabad, teams have travelled door-to-door, educating families about the illness and delivering the vaccine.

They have set up makeshift booths in crowded public areas such as train stations, bus stands and markets, and in other locations, including construction sites where they can catch migrant workers and their children.

A "vaccination on wheels" service was rolled out across the north Indian state of Bihar in which social workers jumped on trains and vaccinated all the children onboard.

In 2008, when floods devastated the state, vaccinators were even sent out in boats.

"We had to make a very detailed, dynamic map of the area and send workers in boats to try and get across to stranded families," Lieven Desomer, head of the polio unit at UN children's agency UNICEF in India, told AFP.

As well as the problems of access, the government and international agencies behind the immunization drive faced problems of ignorance and prejudice.

Vaccinators were attacked, anxious parents would hide their babies from social workers, and there was particular resistance from the Muslim communities in the north of the country.

"There was a general perception that the vaccine was not clean or safe because it came from the West, and that somehow, taking it would make their women and children infertile," UNICEF's Desomer said.

India's crushing summer heat also caused difficulties because vaccines have to be kept at a low temperature to prevent them expiring.

Five years ago, campaigners decided to ensure that vials were only carried in special carriers equipped with ice packs.

Desomer credited "the dogged persistence" of the Indian government for the fall in infections, and said that in 2011 alone, the state contributed 80 percent of the $264 million committed to the fight against polio.

The results of years of innovation, human endeavour, as well as planning and spending, are reflected in the number of infections.

In 2009, India accounted for half of all cases in the world, but infections plummeted to 42 in 2010 and none in the last 12 months.

"It is an amazing achievement. I sometimes feel like I have to pinch myself to make sure I am not dreaming it," Desomer said, while cautioning against premature celebrations.

"We have to remain vigilant and continue immunisations. Complacency at this stage would be a huge mistake," he said.

India will only be judged to have eradicated the disease if it stays polio-free for another two years.

source: mb.com.ph