Category: polio
Together, Let’s End Polio: Reflections from CDC’s 2022 Polio Response in Malawi
CDC Health Scientist Stephanie Dopson reflects on her recent deployment to Malawi supporting the CDC Polio Response. Throughout my 23-year career at CDC, time and time again, I am reminded that it takes the collaboration of many to make a difference in public health. I have served in many responses and deployments, including the anthrax Read More >
Posted on by Leave a commentWe can finish the job of Polio Eradication but, it will not be easy.
This year, 2019, has been a challenging one for polio eradication. Though we have made incredible gains in recent years, the polio program has faced two critical challenges. First, an increase in wild poliovirus (WPV) cases in Pakistan and Afghanistan, the only two countries with detected WPV cases since 2016. And second, a large increase Read More >
Posted on byThirty years of a Unique Partnership to End Polio-GPEI
In 1988, CDC joined three other partners (World Health Organization (WHO), United Nation International Children Fund (UNICF) and Rotary International to launch the ambitious Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI). The world was a dangerous place with respect to polio. A case of polio occurred every 90 seconds, meaning 350,000 children had paralytic polio every year. Read More >
Posted on byThe Global Polio Eradication Initiative History Project: Documenting the Eradication of Polio
The Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI) is a partnership led by five organizations: the World Health Organization (WHO), Rotary International, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The goal of GPEI is to eradicate polio worldwide. Based at the David Read More >
Posted on byOvercoming obstacles to polio eradication in Pakistan
Originally published on October 5, 2017 on Rotary Voices “Coming together is a beginning. Keeping together is progress. Working together is success.” Henry Ford When I first joined Pakistan’s PolioPlus Committee (PNPPC) as a manager close to eight years ago, polio eradication seemed within our reach. I used the opportunity to study poliomyelitis beyond just Read More >
Posted on byPolio Eradication and Beyond: What the Polio Endgame Means for Public Health
The end of polio is in sight, with fewer cases of wild polio virus being reported yearly. Today, polio is on the cusp of eradication, with cases in only a few high-risk areas of three countries—Afghanistan, Nigeria, and Pakistan. This brings the eradication effort to its final chapter, otherwise known as the polio endgame. The Read More >
Posted on byWhen It Was Even Scarier
This blog originally appeared on The Huffington Post on April 29, 2016 Four score and seven years ago, my mother was born into an America swarming with pathogens. Many were simply known as diseases of childhood; not all children survived them. My mother remembers how her family suffered when a cousin died during infancy from Read More >
Posted on byTwo Vaccines for One Polio-free World
Polio was once considered one of the most frightening diseases in the world until a team led by Dr. Jonas Salk developed the first successful polio vaccine. World Polio Day, held every October 24 to celebrate Salk’s birthday, is an opportunity for everyone working to eradicate polio to renew their commitment to creating a polio-free Read More >
Posted on by 6 CommentsVoices from the Central African Republic: FELTP residents remain committed to strengthening disease surveillance and outbreak response in CAR
The Central African Republic (CAR) is a landlocked country in Central Africa, bordered by Chad in the north, Sudan in the northeast, South Sudan in the east, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the Republic of the Congo in the south and Cameroon in the west. CAR is one of the world’s least developed Read More >
Posted on by 1 CommentVaccination: Your best shot
In 2002, I was in Maracaibo, Venezuela assisting with the investigation of the last measles outbreak in South America when the news arrived: Ministers of health from the region agreed that a synchronized week of vaccination in the hemisphere would help prevent future outbreaks and increase access to immunization for many who would miss this Read More >
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