Polio Eradication: Advances, Threats, and the Role of Mobile
Polio Eradication Progress
In 2017 so far, a total of five cases of wild polio have been reported worldwide: 3 in Afghanistan and 2 in Pakistan. This represents an incredible decrease of 99% since 1988, when the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (a public-private partnership composed of national governments with support from the World Health Organization, Rotary International, CDC, UNICEF, and the Gates Foundation) began its efforts to eradicate the disease worldwide — a time when polio paralysed more than 1000 children worldwide every single day.
This represents an enormous triumph for the science of vaccination, and for the determination of the global community to eliminate this disease from the planet, as smallpox was before, almost 40 years ago. National governments, non-profits, the Red Cross movement, scientists, and funders have all played a role in this progress.
Mobile Plays a Role
We’re incredibly proud of having played a role in recent advances against this terrible disease, as for more than five years WHO has relied on Magpi for mobile data collection and reporting for a wide variety of monitoring and assessment and management activities around polio vaccination — some of which are detailed in a paper published last year by Nigeria WHO staff: “Implementation of a Systematic Accountability Framework in 2014 to Improve the Performance of the Nigerian Polio Program”(download below).
Some other papers detailing the role of Magpi in polio eradication (click title to read):
- Cluster Lot Quality Assurance Sampling: Effect of Increasing the Number of Clusters on Classification Precision and Operational Feasibility
- The contribution of the polio eradication initiative to narrowing the gaps in the health workforce in the African Region
- Lot quality assurance sampling to monitor supplemental immunization activity quality: an essential tool for improving performance in polio endemic countries
Threats Looming: You Can Help
Unfortunately, it’s now possible that the eradication effort may suffer from plans by the Trump administration to reduce international health funding. It’s imperative, we believe, that the entire global community come together to fight this threat to what should be one of the greatest public health — or, indeed, human — triumphs in history. We hope our Magpi users and readers will communicate the importance of this effort to their government representatives, and if it is at all possible, we support donations to Rotary International to support polio eradication efforts (click image below to donate now).
Originally published at Magpi.
