Bruce Aylward Global erradication of Polio #ted

At first he shows a picture of polio patients in iron lungs. Speaks about the polio vaccine. The last polio case was in 1980 in USA. Polio still exists in some parts of Africa, India, Pakistan and Afganistan. And in 2 countries that had not had polio for a long time polio came back. In Russia they got polio again. But epidemics is being controlled. We need to completely erradicate polio. Polio can only survive in people so we have to make people polio free. We are doing a global partnership to erradicate polio.  Disease erradication os the venture capital of public health, great risks but great rewards.  Smallpox erradication was an incredibly successful investment, it pays off every 26 days again and again.  Same would be true with polio. But the polio vaccine is very fragile and deteriorates in warm climate. And as opposed to smallpox that is so easy to see because of the rash, polio does not show itself when it first strikes, you can’t see the enemy.

To erradicate polio we have to create a 20 million people social movement. They are vaccinating half a billion children every year. It is oral and easy to administer but the problem is to reach all children of the world in the worst places and conditions.  They have to operate in war conditions. This is foreign aid at its most heroic.  Rotary international is doing this, with over i million volunteers.  Results are good.

Polyo Type 2 has been totally eradicated.  There’s been 99% reduction 1000 kids in the whole world now, a lot but nothing compared to 20 years ago.  But even with 1000 now if we don’t eradicate the disease in 2030 we will have 300K kids again with polio again. A new polio vaccine was developed, old one was 50 years old.  New vaccine is much better.  Northern India is the perfect storm when it comes to polio. Sanitation is terrible. But with the new vaccine not a single got polio.

• Health
• Polio
• TED