OK. I bet you haven’t considered this issue.
While you are ruminating and complaining about being under house arrest, trying to survive (i.e., avoid SARS-CoV-2) the pandemic, the world is undergoing another onslaught.
With all our focus (not just the US, but the rest of the world- and the World Health Organization [WHO]) on this pandemic, no one is really watching the store- the disease store, that is.
The Global Polio Eradication Initiative has been suspended since 24 March. And, won’t even be reconsidered until sometime after July. The, SAGE (the Strategic Advisory Group of Experts on Immunization, a unit of WHO), decided that all preventive mass vaccination campaigns be suspended.
This means little kids will not be getting vaccinations to help them survive. How many are affected? How about more than 13 million kids will not be prevented from acquiring polio. But, it’s worse than that- some 23 countries- with 78 million kids- are being deprived of measles vaccine. And, you can bet that another 16 countries will be suspending their operations, too. Let’s not forget about the other diseases, with vaccinations halted, that can now prevail- yellow fever, cholera, meningitis and human papilloma virus (HPV).
The sad thing is that we were just shy of eradicating polio forever. It’s not just the fact that qualified staff have to deal with the COVID-19 Pandemic- it’s the health risks these folks would undergo if they continue their immunization campaigns, going door to door.
Think this isn’t a crisis? How about reflecting on what’s been happening in Afghanistan and Pakistan, where the polio and hepatitis eradication campaigns have been buffeted by headwinds. Since the CIA went around immunizing folks- while their real goal was to find Osama Bin Laden. (A crazily bad notion that was approved during the Obama administration.)
So, cases of polio, which seems to thrive among the population (endemic to the region), has ballooned from 33 in 2018 to 175 last year.
It’s going to go from bad to worse.
This is serious worry .Don’t know what this will all come to an end
With a terribly decimated population base, I fear, Dr. A!
No, I didn’t consider it because I didn’t know. Thank you for spreading the word
Alana recently posted..Under (an) Untermyer Sky #AtoZChallenge #SkywatchFriday
Only by spreading the word will people demand more equitable action.
You are right. I hadn’t even thought of that! Bad news, for sure.
Maybe we can press our leadership to try and juggle a few balls in the air at once, Jeanine.
This is so sad! Makes me wonder how much else is being neglected with all attention focused on SARS-CoV-2.
Samantha Bangayan recently posted..COVID-19 in Peru: When Isolation Isn’t Isolating
It’s as if the leaders of the world can only focus on one thing at a time, Samantha!
You don’t make it all that easy to contact you.
I wanted to share this on Facebook, obviously WITH attribution since it would be a link to this page. But I like to include a paragraph or two, so that people can tell why I’m recommending a particular link.
Everything I click on that might be a way to contact you turns out to be just a way to share the link on a particular platform–and yes, I’m talking about the links in your “contact” section.
Please do get back to me.
I did.