Mass fight vs polio in Xinjiang
Source: Agencies |
October 19, 2011, Wednesday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
CHINA vaccinated 4.5 million children and young adults over the last five weeks in the western region of Xinjiang in a fight against polio after the disease paralyzed 17 people and killed one of them, the World Health Organization said.
Polio has broken out in China for the first time since 1999 and the WHO says the strain originated from Pakistan. The outbreak marked the latest setback to a global campaign to eradicate polio, now endemic in only four countries - Afghanistan, India, Pakistan and Nigeria.
"Even if they don't come down with any symptoms, by giving them (carriers) polio vaccine we make that person less infectious," said Oliver Rosenbauer, WHO spokesman for the Global Polio Eradication Initiative in Geneva.
All 17 polio cases occurred in Hotan Prefecture in the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, with the patients falling ill between early July and mid-September. The WHO assumes that for every case it finds, there are 199 others infected with the virus without displaying symptoms.
In large vaccination drives in Xinjiang that started in early September, health workers have since vaccinated 4.5 million people with three doses each of the polio vaccine, the WHO said.
Patients and carriers of polio can shed the virus for up to eight weeks in their stools, and transmission occurs through contact with contaminated objects and sewage water. With vaccination, patients and carriers will be infectious for 1-2 weeks.
"We are sensitizing disease surveillance in large hospitals to look for any child or adult displaying polio-like symptoms," Rosenbauer said. "We'll look out for new cases.
Polio has flu-like symptoms such as fever, nausea, headache and can result in paralysis within 24 to 72 hours. There is no cure, and doctors only manage the symptoms.
Rosenbauer said polio-free countries will be at risk of reinfection if they do not sustain high immunization rates and without strong political will to eradicate the disease.
"The rest of the world may be polio-free but because it is a communicable disease and people travel, polio-free countries can become re-infected. ... This is what we are seeing in western China," Rosenbauer said.
Polio has broken out in China for the first time since 1999 and the WHO says the strain originated from Pakistan. The outbreak marked the latest setback to a global campaign to eradicate polio, now endemic in only four countries - Afghanistan, India, Pakistan and Nigeria.
"Even if they don't come down with any symptoms, by giving them (carriers) polio vaccine we make that person less infectious," said Oliver Rosenbauer, WHO spokesman for the Global Polio Eradication Initiative in Geneva.
All 17 polio cases occurred in Hotan Prefecture in the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, with the patients falling ill between early July and mid-September. The WHO assumes that for every case it finds, there are 199 others infected with the virus without displaying symptoms.
In large vaccination drives in Xinjiang that started in early September, health workers have since vaccinated 4.5 million people with three doses each of the polio vaccine, the WHO said.
Patients and carriers of polio can shed the virus for up to eight weeks in their stools, and transmission occurs through contact with contaminated objects and sewage water. With vaccination, patients and carriers will be infectious for 1-2 weeks.
"We are sensitizing disease surveillance in large hospitals to look for any child or adult displaying polio-like symptoms," Rosenbauer said. "We'll look out for new cases.
Polio has flu-like symptoms such as fever, nausea, headache and can result in paralysis within 24 to 72 hours. There is no cure, and doctors only manage the symptoms.
Rosenbauer said polio-free countries will be at risk of reinfection if they do not sustain high immunization rates and without strong political will to eradicate the disease.
"The rest of the world may be polio-free but because it is a communicable disease and people travel, polio-free countries can become re-infected. ... This is what we are seeing in western China," Rosenbauer said.
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