Unfortunately 2018 will not be the year we “Reach Zero”. By mid February 2018 there have been three confirmed cases of wild poliovirus caused paralysis in Afghanistan and positive environmental samples continue to show up in both Afghanistan and in Pakistan.
On a more positive note -- the number of paralytic cases due to circulating vaccine derived poliovirus type 2 (cVDPV2) has markedly decreased from 93-96 cases in 2017 (78 in Syria and 18 in Democratic Republic of Congo) to either zero or three cases thus far in 2018. Carl Tintsman, has said about cVDPV2, “We’ve dealt with this before, we know how to deal with it and can fairly quickly get it under control!” Let’s hope that is true in Syria and the D R Congo!
When cases of paralytic polio are still occurring, it can be discouraging. BUT it is important that we remember some of the remarkable accomplishments that have occurred because of the polio eradication program:
- The number of cases of polio paralysis has decreased more than 99.9% since 1988 (from 350,00 cases annually in the world in 1988 to 22 cases in 2017!)
- More than 16 million people, who would have otherwise have been paralyzed, are free from polio-paralyzed muscles.
- The global effort to eradicate polio has saved more than US $27 billion in healthcare costs since 1988. If the virus is eradicated by 2020, as projected, an additional $20 to $25 billion will be saved by 2035!
- Epidemics of Ebola, meningitis, and other acute contagious diseases have been identified, reported, and teams quickly mobilized to deal with these diseases. This has happened much quicker than would have happened in the past because of the polio surveillance teams and the reporting/tracking teams on the ground, in real time, in the affected countries.
Lastly, we must continue until we reach zero because it is estimated that if we stopped now, within 10 years there would be as many at 200,000 new cases of polio per year in the world!!