Rotary welcomes the announcement by the World Health Organisation today that its South East Asia Region has been declared polio free, thanks to India’s successful polio eradication campaign. It is a major milestone for the global polio eradication programme, the region’s 1.8 billion people and Rotarians around the world who have worked tirelessly for many years to eradicate polio from the world..
Mike Yates of the Rotary Club of Newmills Marple and District said: “The priority now is to prevent the virus from spreading from Pakistan into India and to maintain levels of immunisation in India and the rest of the region to ensure the virus cannot return.”
To achieve this, the international health regulations will become more stringent for travellers from polio infected areas to reduce the risk of the virus spreading. UNICEF has announced that it has put out to tender the supply of inactivated polio vaccine to replace the widely used oral polio vaccine. This vaccine will become available to the poorest countries at only US$1, a fraction of the US$4.50 at which it was previously supplied.
The World Health Organisation’s South East Asia Region consists of Bangladesh, Bhutan, Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, India, Indonesia, Maldives, Myanmar, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Timor-Leste.
