World Closes In on Eradicating Polio

World Closes In on Eradicating¹ Polio

Never before have so few children in the world had polio. Yet, as World Polio Day is observed Saturday, those who are trying to rid Earth of the virus say it's time to step up vaccination² campaigns. If this happens, said Rotary³'s Carol Pandak, director of the PolioPlus program, we could have a polio-free world by 2019.

Three years ago, Nigeria, Africa's most populous⁴ country, was the reservoir of more than half of the polio cases in the world. Then the country's leaders, health workers and volunteers worked out a way to vaccinate⁵ even those children in areas where there was fighting. This year, the World Health Organization removed Nigeria from the list of polio endemic countries.  

"Not having polio in Africa for 12 months is truly a great achievement," said Dr. Elias Durry, an emergency adviser⁶ for polio eradication⁷ at WHO.

History of polio eradication

The movement to wipe out polio began 30 years ago with Rotary, an international service organization that embraced polio eradication as a mission. In a Skype interview, Pandak told VOA, "We’ve made tremendous progress in our effort to eradicate⁸ polio, and it is an exciting time to be part of the effort."

What started out as a program at one organization has become a global movement. The WHO, UNICEF, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and others have joined Rotary as part of a Global Polio Eradication Initiative. The combined efforts have produced a 99 percent decrease in the number of polio cases.

"If you look at the last six months, globally, there were only 16 cases of polio," Durry said. "This is a disease that used to cripple 1,000 children a day."

Afghanistan, Pakistan

When the Global Polio Eradication Initiative was launched in 1988, the wild polio virus existed in 125 countries. Now, it exists in two.

Dr. Jay Wenger, director of the Polio Program at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, said, "We’re down to one epidemiological block, the Afghanistan-Pakistan cluster. That’s the only place in the world where the wild polio virus still lives, and if we could knock it out there, we’re finished with wild polio virus."

Durry said one challenge in the region is that large numbers of people move across the borders of the two countries, so the virus can be constantly reintroduced in the communities.

In Pakistan, attacks on polio workers have horrified⁹ the world, but Durry said they had not reduced the effort to eradicate the virus. UNICEF reports that up to 98 percent of Pakistani parents want their children vaccinated¹⁰, and Pandak said all polio workers now work on a local level so they are known in their communities.

"There’s truly a coordinated¹¹ effort" among the polio partners, government workers and "thousands and thousands of health workers that are out there immunizing children," she said.

Other hurdles¹²

The main challenge is to vaccinate children who are chronically¹³ missed, according to Pandak. "There’s a real focus on finding those children in those remaining pockets that have been inaccessible¹⁴ or are missed for whatever reason," she said.

Another challenge is complacency. When the virus disappears from a region, parents become complacent¹⁵ about vaccinations¹⁶. Despite having enough vaccine¹⁷ on hand, only 14 percent of children were vaccinated this year in Ukraine.

Pandak said that in Ukraine, "the issue is convincing Ukrainian parents to have their children immunized when [the vaccine is] made available ... and also to get high-level government commitment to ensure that the response to the polio cases is [from] the highest level and done within a reasonable time frame."

The stakes are high. Sometimes the virus can gain strength when a weakened polio virus is used in the vaccine. That has happened in Ukraine, Guinea and Madagascar. As a result, the vaccine is being changed.  

"If we let up with still some virus circulating in any part of the world ... the possibility of the virus to go from that place and reinfect other places in the world that have already finished is huge," Wenger said. "That can happen, and if we stop, it will happen, and then we will get polio all over the place again."

The expectations are that Pakistan and Afghanistan will be polio-free by the end of 2016. Then, if there are no new cases anywhere for at least three years, polio will be a part of history.

"We don’t want to take the pedal off the metal, as it were," Pandak said.

1 eradicating   

摧毁，完全根除( eradicate的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• Objective: To study the acute and chronic toxicity of Ten-flavor-acne eradicating-capsule. 目的：探讨复方中药合剂十味平痤胶囊的急性及慢性毒性。
• We are on the verge of eradicating polio in the world. 我们已在世界消除小儿？痹症的边缘了。

2 vaccination   

n.接种疫苗，种痘

参考例句：

• Vaccination is a preventive against smallpox.种痘是预防天花的方法。
• Doctors suggest getting a tetanus vaccination every ten years.医生建议每十年注射一次破伤风疫苗。

3 rotary   

adj.(运动等)旋转的；轮转的；转动的

参考例句：

• The central unit is a rotary drum.核心设备是一个旋转的滚筒。
• A rotary table helps to optimize the beam incidence angle.一张旋转的桌子有助于将光线影响之方式角最佳化。

4 populous   

adj.人口稠密的，人口众多的

参考例句：

• London is the most populous area of Britain.伦敦是英国人口最稠密的地区。
• China is the most populous developing country in the world.中国是世界上人口最多的发展中国家。

5 vaccinate   

vt.给…接种疫苗；种牛痘

参考例句：

• Local health officials then can plan the best times to vaccinate people.这样，当地的卫生官员就可以安排最佳时间给人们接种疫苗。
• Doctors vaccinate us so that we do not catch smallpox.医生给我们打预防针使我们不会得天花。

6 adviser   

n.劝告者，顾问

参考例句：

• They employed me as an adviser.他们聘请我当顾问。
• Our department has engaged a foreign teacher as phonetic adviser.我们系已经聘请了一位外籍老师作为语音顾问。

7 eradication   

n.根除

参考例句：

• The eradication of an established infestation is not easy. 根除昆虫蔓延是不容易的。
• This is often required for intelligent control and eradication. 这经常需要灵巧的控制与消除。

8 eradicate   

v.根除，消灭，杜绝

参考例句：

• These insects are very difficult to eradicate.这些昆虫很难根除。
• They are already battling to eradicate illnesses such as malaria and tetanus.他们已经在努力消灭疟疾、破伤风等疾病。

9 horrified   

a.(表现出)恐惧的

参考例句：

• The whole country was horrified by the killings. 全国都对这些凶杀案感到大为震惊。
• We were horrified at the conditions prevailing in local prisons. 地方监狱的普遍状况让我们震惊。

10 vaccinated   

[医]已接种的，种痘的，接种过疫菌的

参考例句：

• I was vaccinated against tetanus. 我接种了破伤风疫苗。
• Were you vaccinated against smallpox as a child? 你小时候打过天花疫苗吗？

11 coordinated   

adj.协调的

参考例句：

• The sound has to be coordinated with the picture. 声音必须和画面协调一致。
• The numerous existing statutes are complicated and poorly coordinated. 目前繁多的法令既十分复杂又缺乏快调。 来自英汉非文学 - 环境法 - 环境法

12 hurdles   

n.障碍( hurdle的名词复数 )；跳栏；（供人或马跳跃的）栏架；跨栏赛

参考例句：

• In starting a new company, many hurdles must be crossed. 刚开办一个公司时，必须克服许多障碍。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• There are several hurdles to be got over in this project. 在这项工程中有一些困难要克服。 来自辞典例句

13 chronically   

ad.长期地

参考例句：

• Similarly, any pigment nevus that is chronically irritated should be excised. 同样，凡是经常受慢性刺激的各种色素痣切勿予以切除。
• People chronically exposed to chlorine develop some degree of tolerance. 人长期接触氯气可以产生某种程度的耐受性。

14 inaccessible   

adj.达不到的，难接近的

参考例句：

• This novel seems to me among the most inaccessible.这本书对我来说是最难懂的小说之一。
• The top of Mount Everest is the most inaccessible place in the world.珠穆朗玛峰是世界上最难到达的地方。

15 complacent   

adj.自满的；自鸣得意的

参考例句：

• We must not become complacent the moment we have some success.我们决不能一见成绩就自满起来。
• She was complacent about her achievements.她对自己的成绩沾沾自喜。

16 vaccinations   

n.种痘，接种( vaccination的名词复数 )；牛痘疤

参考例句：

• Vaccinations ensure one against diseases. 接种疫苗可以预防疾病。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• I read some publicity about vaccinations while waiting my turn at the doctor's. 在医生那儿候诊时，我读了一些关于接种疫苗的宣传。 来自《简明英汉词典》

17 vaccine   

n.牛痘苗，疫苗；adj.牛痘的，疫苗的

参考例句：

• The polio vaccine has saved millions of lives.脊髓灰质炎疫苗挽救了数以百万计的生命。
• She takes a vaccine against influenza every fall.她每年秋季接种流感疫苗。