Polio spreads through Africa

2005-01-12 10:18

Johannesburg - The ban on polio immunisations by northern Nigeria has resulted in a rapid spread of the life-threatening disease through Africa in the last year, Medinfo said on Tuesday.

Twelve previously polio-free countries were re-infected with the virus in 2004, and the problem was escalating in Nigeria, Sudan, and the Ivory Coast, the health information service said in a statement.

Two-thirds of the polio cases in the world were reported from Nigeria last year - about 760 cases.

This has been blamed on radical activists in the north of the country, who in 2003 started a campaign against immunisation.

The WHO, Unicef, and national health authorities were also very worried about increasing incidence of the disease in the Ivory Coast, which was declared polio free in 2001, Medinfo said.

"The continuing civil conflict in the country has severely disrupted routine immunisation campaigns, resulting in a higher risk of contracting the disease. Children across the country are at risk, as are the children in the five countries bordering on Cote d'Ivoire."

Sudan, another country battling civil unrest, shows the second highest transmission of the disease, with 105 cases reported last year.

The recent flare up of polio on the continent thwarts a World Health Organisation goal to eradicate the virus by the end of 2004.

Although the paralysing disease is usually contracted by children under three years, people of all ages can catch it, and even those who have been immunised were at risk, Medinfo said.

The disease affects the spinal cord, causing paralysis in the lower limbs, and wasting muscles. In most severe cases it can spread to the chest, causing death by asphyxiation.

- SAPA