Vigilance Needed To Prevent Polio Re-emergence In Ukraine

GlobalPost: In the midst of conflict, Ukraine’s children are vulnerable to polio outbreak
John Hewko, general secretary of Rotary International

“While the global health community has been rightly focused on containing West Africa’s deadly Ebola outbreak, a potential health crisis involving another infectious virus — polio — worries many of the same experts. … Polio’s potential re-emergence in Ukraine would be a huge setback to the Global Polio Eradication Initiative… The only way to stop polio for good is to achieve total eradication and wipe it out in the endemic countries, cutting off the virus at its source. This is the goal of the global polio initiative by 2018. Until that goal is reached, the global community must remain vigilant in its resolve to vaccinate every child. … The world cannot stand by and wait for a public health emergency to emerge in a region whose people have endured so much over the past year” (3/30).

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