The World Health Organization said Somalia is once again polio-free thanks to the efforts of 10,000 health workers and volunteers.
The Global Polio Eradication Initiative described the effort as a "historic achievement" in public health. The last reported case of polio in Somalia was in March 2007, the WHO said Tuesday in a news release. More than 10,000 Somali volunteers and health workers vaccinated more than 1.8 million children under the age of five by visiting every household in every settlement multiple times.
"This truly historic achievement shows that polio can be eradicated everywhere, even in the most challenging and difficult settings," Dr.Hussein A. Gezairy of the WHO said in a statement.
Somalia had eradicated the disease in 2002 but became re-infected in 2005 from polio virus that originated in Nigeria, the health organization said.
Copyright 2008 by United Press International
Related stories:
US advisory panel OK's 2 new combination vaccines
(AP) -- A federal advisory panel on Thursday endorsed two new combination vaccines designed to reduce the number of needle sticks that young children must endure to get the recommended immunizations.
Parents follow pediatrician advice on administering MMR vaccinations
News stories about an allegedly harmful link between the mumps, measles and rubella vaccine and the onset of autism had little effect on whether U.S. parents immunized their children, according to a review of immunization records and news stories. Parents’ decisions were more likely influenced by recommendations from their child’s pediatrician, the researchers said.
Removing barriers to the distribution of life-saving vaccines
Barriers to the distribution of life saving vaccines in low income countries can and should be overcome, say experts in this week’s issue of the BMJ.
Polio's eradication still uncertain
Efforts to wipe out polio have stalled in recent years and eradication of the crippling disease remains a question mark, U.S. and world experts say.
E. coli bacteria migrating between humans, chimps in Ugandan park
Scientists from the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana have found that people employed in chimpanzee-focused research and tourism in a park in western Uganda are exchanging gastrointestinal bacteria – specifically Escherichia coli – with local chimpanzee populations. And some of the E. coli strains migrating to chimps are resistant to antibiotics used by humans in Uganda.
Polio eradication hinges on four countries
Successfully global eradication of polio depends four countries' efforts to vaccinate children, the Swiss-based Advisory Committee on Polio Eradication said.
Egypt may have eradicated the polio virus
Scientists believe the world's first cases of polio occurred about 5,000 years ago in Egypt, but now that nation has apparently eradicated the virus.
New treatments for viral and other diseases by blocking genes
The elusive goal of developing effective treatments for viral diseases such as AIDS and influenza has been brought closer by dramatic progress in the ability to interfere with viral genetic machinery. The stage was set for a coordinated European effort to accelerate research and stimulate development of new treatments against viral diseases at a recent research conference organised by the European Science Foundation (ESF).