WHAT'S NEW THIS FRIDAY: THE HUMAN QUALITIES NEEDED TO COMPLETE THE GLOBAL ERADICATION OF POLIO

Thursday, 4th of April 2013

THE HUMAN QUALITIES NEEDED TO COMPLETE THE GLOBAL ERADICATION OF POLIO

Full text is at http://www.who.int/bulletin/volumes/91/4/12-111831.pdf

Conclusion

Attention to the key human qualities needed for success is as important for polio eradication as it was for smallpox eradication.25 The global eradication of polio depends on increasing herd immunity, through mass vaccination, to counterbalance the factors that favour persistent poliovirus transmission and the vulnerability of a population to poliovirus (i.e. poverty, overcrowding, conflict, political instability, low levels of education and sanitation and high fertility). To tilt the balance and stop poliovirus transmission, various human qualities need to be enhanced, highlighted, invigorated and intensified. These human qualities, which can be remembered as the acronym ERADICATION, are energy, realism, articulacy, determination, imagination, collaboration, adaptability, tactical awareness, innovation, openness and nimbleness. Advocates, whether at the global, national or local level, can use ERADICATION as a rallying call in their identification and promotion of the qualities needed to achieve global polio eradication. The only alternative to polio eradication is the indefinite application of measures to limit the spread of, and harm caused by, polio, with indefinite costs incurred in both human and economic terms. A lack of determination will consign the goal of global polio eradication to the fate of Tantalus.26