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Special Issue: Polio Eradication Initiative Best Practices in the WHO African Region, Introduction

Friday, 7th of October 2016

 

Vaccine, Volume 34, Issue 43, 10 October 2016, Pages 5141

Special Issue: Polio Eradication Initiative Best Practices in the WHO African Region, Introduction

 

Editorial

Introduction

• Joseph Okeibunor

• Regional Office for Africa, World Health Organization, Brazzaville, Congo

• Bartholomew Dicky Akanmori

• Regional Advisor, Vaccine Regulation Immunization & Vaccines Development Family & Reproductive Health Cluster, WHO, Regional Office for Africa (WHO AFRO), Box 06 Djoue, Brazzaville, Congo

• Richard Mihigo,
• Pascal Mkanda

• Regional Office for Africa, World Health Organization, Brazzaville, Congo

Available online 2 September 2016

 

 

Also at http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0264410X16306260

 

The eradication of poliomyelitis has been a very long and arduous journey, which began in 1988, when the World Health Assembly adopted the goal of eradicating polio by 2000, but which has finally made substantive progress and prevented the paralysis of millions of children globally and especially in Africa. Four years ago African countries were responsible for more than half of the global cases of wide polio viruses (WPVs). The relentless efforts of countries in diligently implementing the strategies of the polio eradication initiative (PEI), with the support of WHO and partners, led to the eradication of WPV type 2 and certification through the Global Commission for Certification of Polio Eradication (GCC), in September 2015. The African Region has not detected any WPV type 3 for more than 40 months since the onset of the latest case in November 2012 from Nigeria.

The progress made in the eradication of polio is due to improvement in the implementation of the strategies, innovations in responding to outbreaks, strong leadership and unwavering commitment of national governments, involvement of traditional and community leaders and the dedicated partners, who never yielded even in the face many outbreaks but focussed on attaining polio eradication targets. Unprecedented courage, zeal and determination were exhibited by all workers in ensuring the timely delivery of polio vaccines to infants and children in the face of insecurity, some paying the ultimate price of losing their lives in the quest to achieve this public health feat.

This supplement documents the public health lessons learned and identifies some of the best practices, which can also be applied to other disease prevention, control and elimination programmes with similar success. The papers, written by those who were actively engaged in polio eradication, cover every aspect of the PEI, from preparedness and response to disease outbreaks, partnership with the military in Angola to reach children in remote areas, strengthening routine immunizations service delivery and provision of other interventions, strengthening communicable disease surveillance and laboratory capacity, transit vaccination, improving the health workforce and introduction of new vaccines.

The process of documentation started with visits by consultants to 8 countries (Angola, Chad, Cote dIvoire, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, Nigeria, Tanzania, and Togo) between July 2014 and January 2015, who carefully collected and collated all the best practices through a series of interviews, review of programmes and documentation of activities. This exercise revealed several innovative public health practices to detect and respond adequately to outbreaks of polio viruses, which led to important results in polio eradication in the African Region. However many of these critical public health interventions are not widely known and have not been employed beyond polio eradication. The implementation of these best practices in Africa could strengthen immunization programmes and public health in general.

These innovative practices need to be shared with policymakers, communities and public health practitioners in Africa and around the world, and to also bring academic recognition to the public health workers involved in implementation. This is what the supplement seeks to achieve.

© 2016 World Health Organization Regional Office for Africa. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

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 This article belongs to a special issue

1. Polio Eradication Initiative Best Practices in the WHO African Region
2. Edited By Joseph Okeibunor, Bartholomew Dicky Akanmori, Richard Mihigo and Pascal Mkanda

3.     Other articles from this special issue

1.  
   1. Winning the battle against the scourge of poliomyelitis in the African Region
   2. Matshidiso Moeti,

more

1.  
   1. Documentation of polio eradication initiative best practices: Experience from WHO African Region
   2. Joseph Okeibunor, , Deo Nshimirimana, , Peter Nsubuga, , Evariste Mutabaruka, , Leonard Tapsoba, , Emmanuel Ghali, , Shaikh Humayun Kabir, , Alex Gassasira, , Richard Mihigo, , Pascal Mkanda,

more

1.  
   1. The contribution of the polio eradication initiative to narrowing the gaps in the health workforce in the African Region
   2. Jean Kamso, , Eddy S. Mvika, , M.O.C. Ota, , Joseph Okeibunor, , Pascal Mkanda, , Richard Mihigo,