Polio immunization suspended amid coronavirus pandemic

Health officials attempting to eradicate polio say y are being forced to suspend ir mass immunization efforts amid surging coronavirus pandemic.

World Health Organization and partners decided that for next six months, all polio activities including national vaccination campaigns and house-to-house surveillance “should be suspended to avoid placing communities and frontline workers at unnecessary risk.”

anuncement came after a meeting last week of Polio Oversight Board, an expert body coordinated by WHO and partners.

experts ted that while halting efforts to stop polio is necessary given speed at which COVID-19 is infecting people globally, it will undoubtedly result in increased spread of paralytic disease and numbers of children paralyzed by virus.

mass vaccination campaigns — which occur as frequently as every month — are critical to stopping polio, as eradication requires that more than 95% of children under 5 be immunized.

global effort to wipe out polio began in 1988 and was intended to eliminate disease by 2000. But initiative has been hobbled by numerous problems including resistance to vaccines, outbreaks in some instances caused by vaccines mselves and little access to conflict areas in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Nigeria.

It will be up to individual countries to decide wher to suspend ir vaccination campaigns, according to a te released after polio meeting. Officials warned that stopping polio efforts will require scaled-up work once immunization activities can resume.

Polio is endemic in Afghanistan and Pakistan and continues to be a problem in about 10 or countries worldwide.