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March 9, 2001
“Fight Against Polio Needs C$450M Injection” Ottawa
Citizen (www.ottawacitizen.com)
(03/08/01) P. A3;
Stonehouse, David
According to experts, the global goal of eradicating polio
by 2005 is currently in jeopardy and needs an injection of C$450 million if
efforts are to be successful. Dr. Steve
Cochi of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says the investment
is necessary at this point when the goal is so close because “if we have to cut
the number of rounds of national immunization days, we might potentially
compromise their success.” Canadian
physician Bruce Aylward, who coordinates the polio eradication program for the
World Health Organization, says the effort is having trouble raising the
necessary funds precisely because it has been so successful thus far, which has
reduced the political pressure. Over
the past 20 years, about $2.5 billion has been spent on the effort, reducing
the number of polio cases from about 350,000 worldwide to about 3,500 concentrated
in some 20 countries over the past 12 years.
The coming year is crucial to meeting the 2005 goal, because doctors will
only declare a disease eradicated after a three-year absence of any sign of
it. Dr. Aylward warns that easing up
political pressure and investment now, simply because there are so few cases of
it and those cases are concentrated in poorer nations, is unwise since no
disease is truly controlled until it is eradicated.
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