WHO plans polio vaccinations in Africa

							WHO plans polio vaccinations
        in Africa
            By ELIZABETH A. KENNEDY
              Associated Press Writer


http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/A/AFRICA_POLIO?SITE=MIDTN&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT
             Vaccination Plans
• NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) -- The U.N. health agency plans
  to vaccinate nearly 3 million children in the Horn of Africa
  this year against polio, a crippling disease that experts
  fear could spread rapidly along the region's volatile and
  porous borders.
• The campaign, which starts Saturday and runs through
  December, will target children under 5 in Kenya, Ethiopia
  and Somalia.
• "Nomadic people move between these countries all the
  time, so the idea is to try to get to these children and
  protect them," Dr. Mohamed Dahir Duale, a Kenya-
  based doctor with the World Health Organization, said
  Friday.
• Polio is a waterborne disease that usually infects
  children through contaminated drinking water, attacking
  the nervous system and causing paralysis, muscular
  atrophy, deformation and sometimes death. Last year,
  some 1,880 people were infected with polio worldwide.
                   Poliomyelitis (1)
• What is polio?
   – Polio is a viral disease which may affect the central
     nervous system. Since polio immunization has become
     widespread, cases of polio are very rare.
• Who gets polio?
   – Polio is more common in infants and young children and
     occurs under conditions of poor hygiene. However,
     paralysis is more common and more severe when infection
     occurs in older individuals. In exceedingly rare cases, oral
     polio vaccine has caused paralytic polio in a person who
     received the vaccine or in a person who was a close
     contact of a vaccine recipient.
• What are the symptoms of polio?
   – Infection ranges in severity from an unapparent infection to
     a paralytic disease which may result in death. Symptoms
     include fever, malaise, headache, nausea and vomiting,
     excruciating muscle pain and stiffness in the neck and
     back. http://www.health.state.ny.us/nysdoh/communicable_diseases/en/polio.htm
               Poliomyelitis (2)
• What is the treatment for polio?
   – There is presently no cure for polio. Treatment
     involves supportive care.
• What are the complications associated with
  polio?
   – Complications include paralysis (most commonly of
     the legs). Paralysis of the muscles of respiration and
     swallowing can be fatal.
• How can polio be prevented?
   – Maintaining high levels of polio immunization in the
     community is the single most effective preventive
     measure.
                 Polio in Africa
• Polio-free for almost 3 years, Somalia became re-
  infected in 2005 with a case in the capital, Mogadishu.
• To date, there are 215 confirmed cases in Somalia,
  according to the WHO. Ethiopia has had 37 cases since
  December 2004 and Kenya has been polio-free for 22
  years.
• When WHO launched a $4 billion anti-polio campaign in
  1988, the worldwide case count was more than 350,000
  annually. WHO had hoped to eradicate the disease
  globally by the end of 2005, but missed that target in part
  because of a 2003 vaccine boycott in Nigeria.
• Hard-line Islamic clerics there claimed the polio vaccine
  was part of a U.S.-led plot to render Nigeria's Muslims
  infertile or infect them with AIDS. Vaccination programs
  restarted in Nigeria in July 2004.
Ethiopia




Somalia


Kenya
               Economics
                            $
• This is a classic
  externality case.
                                          MSB
• We have MPB,
  MSB. Why do they
                                MPB
  differ?
                                                                P
• Economists
  recommend a                   Subsidy
  subsidy.
                      P–S
• Takes us to where
  MPB = P – S.
                                            Vmkt   Vopt
                                                          Vaccination