African health officials announced a significant milestone this week when they revealed that one full year had passed since there were any reported cases of polio across the continent.
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But still, there is no assurance that all the children in the hard-to-reach areas are safe from polio and this might just prove a major setback in the quest to eradicate the disease.
No cases have been identified in Africa since 11 August last year in the Hobyo district of Mudug province in Somalia, meaning that the continent is two years away from being certified polio-free.
“I just hope Boko Haram will not be the achilles heel of our work”, said Oyewale Tomori, professor of virology at the Nigerian Academy of Science, who has dedicated four decades of his life to polio research.
According to WHO, if polio is eradicated from the world, there will be an estimated $50-billion savings over the next 20 years and if failed, it could result with up to 200,000 new cases a year within ten years. It is one of only three countries – along with Pakistan and Afghanistan – where the virus remains endemic.
The country’s Conference of Catholic Bishops recently boycotted WHO’s polio vaccine campaign until it can verify that there is no presence of estrogen in the shots, NPR reported.
“Globally, we are on the verge of totally eradicating a disease for only the second time in history”, UNICEF polio chief Peter Crowley said, referring to the elimination of smallpox.
According to the World Health Organization, a polio-free Africa would mean that of all the countries affected by the disease, Pakistan and Afghanistan would be the only two countries where it hasn’t been cleaned out yet, and also said that the one-year mark had been a key signal concerning the “important progress toward eradication”.
The challenges to keeping Africa polio-free include militant groups, notably Boko Haram in Nigeria and al-Shabab in Somalia, interrupting vaccinations and public awareness campaigns.
Vaccinators were periodically attacked and killed because religious leaders believed their work to be part of a Western plot to sterilize Muslim children. We realised we couldn’t reach the community with vaccines without the traditional leaders.
In 2008 we had an outbreak of polio that originated in Jonglei State, close to the border with Ethiopia.
Polio often spreads among young children and in areas with poor sanitation, but since the Global Polio Eradication Initiative launched in 1988, there has been a reduction in cases worldwide of more than 99%.
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Despite the anniversary, health officials in the country remain concerned about the possibility of Polio coming back any time.
