Tech News

Afghanistan Almost Strike Polio. Now the Future Is Unknown

[ad_1]

More than that week, international attention is focused on their sudden return to the Taliban, as well as international flights deporting ambassadors, Western workers, and refugees. But a small group of medical professionals are frustrated by the growing number of politicians for some reason: They worry that it could jeopardize the long-term task of tackling polio, which is dependent on the country – and, after frustrating years, success now seems imminent.

Since 1988, a strong and affordable global campaign has chased away polio worldwide. Afghanistan is one of the two countries where the spread of aggressive polio has never been disrupted; Pakistan, which shares long-distance borders, is another. Crime rates have dropped dramatically as religious and political groups disrupted child immunizations, meeting again last year, with 140 cases in both countries, the Covid epidemic forced. suspension for three months in the process of vaccination.

But the numbers so far are pretty good: There has been a single polio problem in every country this year — both in January – and fewer viruses found in toilets, a way to diagnose, than in previous years. It’s an unhealthy time to deal with government change, and the health workers who have brought the campaign so far are all retired.

“We are at a crossroads right now in Afghanistan and Pakistan,” said Hamid Jafari, a physician and director of ercoisation for the World Health Organization’s Eastern Mediterranean Region, which extends from North Africa across the Middle East to Pakistan. “We are seeing an increase in the prevalence of polio in both countries – a dramatic decline. It provides a great opportunity for the program to deal with a small virus problem and just stop it. ”

Frankly, the polio campaign in Afghanistan has not ended, and there is no indication that the Taliban leadership in Afghanistan will want it. Last week, the Global Polio Eradication Initiative, which is the name for the campaign, wrote words “It also explores the potential for immunization against polio and the deployment of other essential services, in order to further monitor vaccination and prioritize the safety and security of workers and veterans.”

As per the legal calculations, the Afghan Taliban’s perception of job losses has also diminished. Originally in power in the 1990s, the Taliban allowed the project (WHO, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Gates Foundation and Rotary International) to operate in Afghanistan. But in 2018, it imposed restrictions on the areas under their control, banning vaccinated groups from going from house to house in their area, and then allowing more vaccines in public homes such as mosques.

The ban, as well as a similar respite in Pakistan as political parties struggle for power, is the mainstay of spikes in polio cases: from 33 cases in the two countries in 2018 to 117 in 2019. severe beatings, as they carry around the oral vaccine she vaccinated the child. (Even in the US and Western Europe, which use the injection method, it is required three times to protect the immune system, and to encourage school-age children to close it.

“We estimate that approximately 3 million children will not have access to treatment between 2018 and 2020,” said John Vertefeuille, a physician and head of the polio prevention unit against the CDC. If this left the children – some of them vaccinated and some born with the onset of the flu – would be at risk for the virus and the floppy virus that causes it, I would increase the number of viruses in the community as children contract the virus and spread it to others.

[ad_2]

Source link

Related Articles

Leave a Reply

Back to top button