Polio: Fighting the Paralyzing Disease

Polio has been paralyzing millions of children of the world for over a half century now. Only recently have some parts of the world been declared polio free. The United States in 1994, Europe in 1998 and Western Pacific in 2000 were declared polio free zones.

The disease however continues to paralyze children who unfortunately are born in Africa and South Asia. East and Central Africa are now one of the last hiding places for the poliovirus.

Ethiopia is one of the African countries hardly hit by poliomyelitis. The disease has permanently paralyzed thousands of children. The campaign now is to save the coming generation from the paralyzing disease. The world targets 2005 as a polio free world and to that end immunization campaigns have been conducted for some years now.

Ethiopia's National Immunization Days, NIDs, for short, are days for immunizing children both in urban and rural areas. NIDs conducted in the past enable the country to inoculate millions of children.

Today is the beginning of another round of immunization days and over14 million children are expected to be inoculated both in urban and rural Ethiopia.

Government's commitment to the eradication of the virus aside, the effort by some voluntary organizations is praiseworthy. The Rotary International has devoted time and resources to the success of NIDs campaigns in Ethiopia. It has been spearheading the fight against the virus in this country. In this week's campaign it has managed to involve some 80 Rotarians from the United States.

With only one case of polio reported in Ethiopia last year and similar numbers in the neighboring countries, East Africa will hopefully be polio free by the targeted year 2005. Statistics also indicate that only 500 cases of polio were registered last year globally.

The effort by the government and voluntary organizations like Rotary International and other donors in fighting the crippling disease is laudable; and a similar vigor and commitment is required from all corners to kick polio out of Ethiopia once and for all.

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