Polio wiped out in 3 years
2003-05-30 16:48
Johannesburg - The debilitating disease polio is to be eradicated in South Africa within the next three years, Minister of Health Manto Tshabalala-Msimang said on Friday.
Launching a national polio eradication campaign in Theunissen north of Bloemfontein, Tshabalala-Msimang set off a clock that will countdown the 945 days in which government hopes to eradicate the disease.
The South African campaign, which will run in collaboration with Lesotho and Swaziland, is to coincide with the similar international effort by the World Health Organisation (WHO).
Tshabalala-Msimang said a special national immunisation campaign against polio would be held in 2004.
Although the last confirmed polio case occurred in 1989 in South Africa, the country still did not meet international requirements for polio free certification.
Areas hard to reach still had to be made aware of the need for immunisation, Tshabalala-Msimang said.
Maria Griessel, head of child health and nutrition at the Free State department of health, said the WHO prescribed immunisation coverage of at least 80%. South Africa had to reach this target each year until 2005 to be declared polio free.
To be safe, the government had set a target of 90% coverage, she said.
This meant 90% of all South African children younger than one year had to be immunised against the disease.
According to a WHO website, polio is still endemic in India, Nigeria, Pakistan, Egypt, Afghanistan, Niger and Somalia.
Countries considered to be at high risk of polio infection are Angola, Bangladesh, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, Nepal and the Sudan.
If the WHO campaign is successful, polio will be the first disease to be eradicated in the 21st century, and only the second after smallpox in 1979.
- SAPA