Polio Related Headline News on the Web

March 15, 2009

Documentary On Polio Battle Vies For Oscar

"The Final Inch" Takes Uncompromising Look At The Final Battle To Eradicate Forgotten Disease

By Stephen Smith

© MMIX, CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved.

 Irene Taylor Brodsky with a girl in India while filming "The Final Inch." (CBS)

(CBS)  She had nothing to do with "Slumdog Millionaire," but filmmaker Irene Taylor Brodsky is thrilled that the movie has generated so much pre-Oscar hype.

That's because her documentary "The Final Inch" -- which has also been nominated for an Academy Award -- takes a real-life look at India's slums. The film explores the final battle against polio, a largely forgotten disease that continues to ravage the world's poorest areas -- areas that the Hollywood feature so graphically depicts.

"Slumdog Millionaire is reaching millions more than my film will reach," Taylor Brodsky says from Los Angeles. "I'm grateful that it brings to light some of the issues that my film addresses in a very real way."

The reality is staggering. Polio, a disease widely considered obsolete in the industrialized world, still poses a threat to children living in areas with poor sanitation. Last year, more than 1,600 cases were reported worldwide, according to the Global Polio Eradication Initiative, a collaborative effort led by Rotary, the World Health Organization, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and UNICEF.

Taylor Brodsky's film chronicles the world's largest non-military army -- some 4 million in India alone -- who continue to wage the battle to eradicate the disease. The camera follows people like Ashfaq Bhat, a doctor and Kashmir native, who travels to remote areas to give the coveted vaccine to children. We also meet Munzareen Fatima, a UNICEF volunteer who tries to sway skeptical families to get their children immunized in Uttar Pradesh -- India's ground zero of the disease.

Taylor Brodsky, 38, says getting skeptical families to comply with the vaccinations is a major hurdle. Some families hide their children because they simply don't trust American-made medicines. Others simply refuse the vaccination as a form of political protest.

"People are angry that the government isn’t doing enough to get rid of the root of polio -- sanitation, over-crowdedness and poor health care," says the filmmaker. "I don’t think they realize how much they are truly putting their children at risk."

Another obstacle for volunteers is simply reaching the people who need the vaccine in remote areas -- including war zones. Tom Grant, the film's producer, shot countless hours of footage in the dangerous region along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border. He had to wear a bullet-proof vest and was under constant U.N. protection.

"He was putting his life at risk and we were also worried he was putting health workers lives' at risk by bringing so much attention to them," says Taylor Brodsky.

The filmmaker, who previously worked at CBS Sunday Morning, credits Dr. Larry Brilliant for encouraging her to do the movie. Brilliant is the executive director of Google.org, which contributes resources to address some of the world's most urgent problems. Brilliant was behind the 1970s campaign to eradicate small pox -- thus far the only such effort to succeed 100 percent. Polio would be just the second virus in human history to be completely wiped out.

"We are hoping the film will encourage those working hard on polio to bring this eradication effort over the finish line," a Google.org spokesman said. "We need to work until the last case of polio has been removed from the planet."

As the film chronicles, polio is not confined to far-off regions. The documentary follows polio survivor Mikhail Davenoport as he rides a hand-cycle 950 miles across his native Texas to raise awareness about the disease. Then there is Martha Mason in North Carolina. Left paralyzed and unable to breathe by polio as a child, she has lived in an Iron Lung for the past six decades.

While the polio eradication effort is daunting, the statistics are encouraging. Two decades ago, 20,000 people a day were getting polio; this year, fewer than 1,000 will. Taylor Brodsky points out that the current campaign will not only prevent future generations from contracting the disease, it will also be a tremendous financial savings -- "like the Holy Grail" in the public health community.

Now, the filmmaker is vying for Hollywood's Holy Grail -- the golden Oscar statuette. But even as she soaks in Tinsel Town's biggest night, her thoughts are never far from the remote regions featured in her documentary.

"You feel this tremendous responsibility," she says. "You’ve been given this soapbox for a month -- a chance to meet other filmmakers but also to have a modest opportunity to tell people about the film. That’s why we do it."

Note: This article came from www.cbsnews.com 

Synchronized Polio Campaign Kicks Off Across Eight Countries In West Africa

02 Mar 2009 - 6:00 PST - Fifty-three million children under five are expected to be reached across eight West African countries in a coordinated polio immunization campaign that launched today.

The synchronized cross-border initiative will take place in eight countries simultaneously: Benin, Burkina Faso, Côte d'Ivoire, Ghana, Mali, Niger, Togo, and Nigeria.

The goal of the campaign is to reach every child, even in the most remote rural areas or in the most populated urban areas. More than 162,000 trained immunizers (67,000 for Nigeria alone) will aim to reach every child with a polio vaccine. A total of 66 million doses of vaccine (33 million for Nigeria alone) are available for each round of the campaign.

The campaign is scheduled in two rounds: 27 February to 2 March, and 27 to 30 March 2009. (In Ghana, the first round took place from 12 to 14 February.) During each of the rounds, teams will go door-to-door while others will be in schools and health centers.

Outreach activities leading up to the campaign include the involvement of local authorities, traditional and religious leaders; interpersonal communication at the community level by social workers and volunteers; community mobilization; and the broadcast of TV and radio spots.

In 2008, a polio outbreak in northern Nigeria spread to six countries in West Africa. The wild polio virus had already re-infected Niger in 2007, as well as Chad and Cameroun in Central Africa. The campaign aims at reaching a critical mass of polio immunization coverage in order to stop the spread of the wild polio virus. The highest priority is to reach every child in Nigeria and in the high-risk areas across the region (districts where cases where reported in re-infected countries, districts with low routine immunization coverage and districts where new case surveillance is weak).

The key to stopping polio in its tracks is comprehensive and coordinated vaccination campaigns and cross-border planning. Undertaking the campaign simultaneously in eight countries reduces the risk of missing children, particularly in a context where there are likely to be large movements of populations.

The campaign mobilizes the teams of the health ministries of all the countries, supported by UNICEF, WHO, Rotary International and other partners as well as volunteers, traditional and religious chiefs and the media, and is being organized as part of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative. The total cost of the campaign is $29 million for the seven countries, with an additional $38 million for Nigeria. This amount includes the cost of the vaccine, operational costs, social mobilization and surveillance.

About the Global Polio Eradication Initiative

This campaign is part of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative, a partnership spearheaded by WHO, Rotary International, the US Center for Diseases Control and Prevention and UNICEF. The polio eradication coalition includes governments of countries affected by polio; private sector foundations (United Nations Foundation, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation); development banks (World Bank); bilateral donor governments; the European Commission; the International Red Cross and Red Crescent societies and nongovernmental organizations as well as corporate partners (Sanofi Pasteur, De Beers and Wyeth). Volunteers in developing countries also play a key role. For more information go to http://www.polioeradication.org.

About polio

Poliomyelitis (polio) is a highly infectious viral disease, which mainly affects children under five. The virus attacks the nervous system and is transmitted through contaminated food, water and feces. One in two-hundred infections leads to irreversible paralysis, usually in the legs. Among those paralyzed, 5 per cent to 10 per cent die when their breathing muscles become immobilized. Polio cannot be cured and can only be prevented by immunization. WHO recommends that infants receive three doses of oral poliovirus vaccine (OPV) in the first year of life.

Today, only four countries in the world-- Afghanistan, India, Nigeria and Pakistan--remain polio-endemic, down from more than 125 in 1988. In 2008, 803 cases of wild polio virus were reported in Nigeria and a total of 41 cases of imported wild polio virus were reported in Benin (6), Burkina Faso (6), Côte d'Ivoire (1), Ghana (8), Mali (1), Niger (13) and Togo (3). All imported cases are type 1 polio virus, except one case in Benin that was type 3 polio virus.

As of 13 February, 26 cases of wild polio virus have been reported in West Africa - Nigeria (25) and Niger (1).

Note: Article came from MEDICAL NEWS TODAY