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Polio in Africa (by Anthony-George D'Andrea)

It’s unfortunate that a large amount of the healthy population take vaccinations and various other types of aid that they are given on a yearly basis for granted. With such help, their bodies have become immune to almost every type of disease that a cure or vaccination has been found for and in turn, dissolve any worry about contracting that disease ever again. It is a great thing for us to be able to control diseases that have plagued people for many years. Unfortunately, this is not the case throughout the entire world. 

With a world consisting of about six billion people, it is difficult to put the lid on a disease and contain it, though it has been done. Smallpox was the first and only disease to have been defeated all over the world and today, in 2004, the world is on the verge of defeating a second disease, polio. Its near defeat has come to a screeching halt at the continent of Africa and in doing so, spectators who eagerly anticipated the moment where they could have stood up and raised their arms in victory over the wretched disease remain firmly in their seats as what was thought to be a one way tide begins to turn. 

First let us take a look at polio and how it affects the human body. Scientifically known as Poliomyelitis, polio is an infectious disease that enters through the mouth of the person, slows down and multiplies in the intestines, eventually targeting and attacking the nervous system and finally exiting through the feces. Some people who have endured polio go through it without even realizing it; however others aren’t as lucky as they experience fever, pain developing in the limbs, fatigue and vomiting. All these symptoms have the potential to lead the victim to polio’s worst effect, paralysis. According to the Global Polio Eradication Initiative, one in every two hundred polio cases will lead to such paralysis and 5-10% of those people will die due to the immobilization of their breathing muscles. 

The frightening fact about polio is that it is easily spread by anyone infected with the disease, regardless of the symptoms they had and often, people pass it on without ever knowing that they had contracted polio. The seriousness of this deception has been noted by the World Health Organization (WHO) due to the fact that by the time a person shows the usual symptoms of polio, thousands of other people in the area could already be infected with the disease, thus making it difficult to contain. Polio, for the most part, places children under five years of age at the greatest risk, but adults can still contract it.

As of the week of September 22nd, 2004, the Global Polio Eradication Initiative stated that globally, 717 cases of polio have been found. 544 of these cases are in the country of Nigeria, with the rest being scattered among India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Niger and Egypt. To add to these numbers were cases of polio confirmed in Mali, Sudan, and Guinea. It is this rapid spreading of the disease that is worrying several people, due to the fact that a disease that was so close to being controlled and dissolved is now beginning to slip out of their grasp and grow. Action must be taken immediately and the bleeding must be stopped before the entire continent of Africa is enveloped by the crippling disease. In order to stop the spread, the disease must be tended to and in this case, it is Nigeria that has suffered most.

The World Health Organization had predicted that this was the final year for polio and its existence, but this is easier said than done. For example, Kano, a city-state found in northern Nigeria, has a commanding Muslim population in which 99% of people refused to take part in vaccinations set up by the WHO last December. The reason for not participating in the vaccinations was that the Islamic clerics believed the vaccinations had been tampered with and were aimed at making African - in particular Muslim - women infertile. Recently, Kano leaders have allowed for vaccinations to take place, yet the WHO believes that only 60% of the children in the state were treated to. It is this incident and hesitation in Kano that is now being blamed for the new cases that are popping up over various countries in Africa that were thought to have been fully cleansed of the disease.

Regardless of how polio might have spread through the continent of Africa, what matters now is that it is quickly handled and dealt its final blow, extinguishing it from not only Africa but the entire world. Even though polio has gained some ground in the recent outbreaks, the task that was set out from the very beginning of these vaccinations is still very possible. 

When something needs to be accomplished, two things are necessary: effort from dedicated volunteers, and money. Volunteers are plentiful, butlarge amounts of money are never easily gathered. According to Rotary International and United Nations agencies, $100 million is needed, with the hopes of immunizing 74 million children in 22 African countries.

The week ending August 24th of 2004, The Global Polio Eradication Initiative claimed that there were 607 cases of polio and within a month it had jumped to 717. All attention in the world should be focused on putting an end to a disease that was on its way to becoming extinct. When you think about it, if all the countries from the world were to pitch in a small fee, 100 million dollars is, for the lack of a better word, peanuts. 

The United States alone can afford to subsidize these costs. According to a report in the Washington Post on July 4th of 2004, the United States government has spent only 2 percent of an 18.4 billion dollar aid package that was approved by congress in order to finance reconstruction in Iraq. While politicians debate budgets, a visible weapon - one that cannot be mistaken for anything else - is crippling people all over Africa. We must not let the disease take more lives now that we're so close to winning the battle.

Sources

“Africa ‘faces new polio threat’.” BBC News. 20 May 2004. 1 October 2004. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/3594694.stm>.

Altman, Lawrence. “Spread of Polio in Africa Makes UN Fear a Major Epidemic.” Global Policy Forum. 23 June 2004. 1 October 2003. <http://www.globalpolicy.org/socecon/develop/africa/2004/0623polio.htm>.

Chandrasekaran, Rajiv. “U.S. Funds for Iraq Are Largely Unspent.” Washington Post. 4 July 2004. 1 October 2004. <http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A26310-2004Jul3.html>.

Global Polio Eradication. 1 October 2004. <http://www.polioeradication.org/>.

“Kano: Nigeria’s ancient city-state.” BBC News. 20 May 2004. 1 October 2004. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/3708309.stm>.

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