Health, humanitarian and business leaders
gather and agree to strategic plan for certifying world polio-free by 2005
Backed by a broad spectrum of leaders from business,
governments, UN agencies and humanitarian groups, United nations
Secretary-General Kofi Annan said that the world could win the race
against polio so long as health workers are able to vaccinate every child.
Touting the strategic plan 2001-2005 for the final
chapter of global eradication, Mr. Annan declared that the race to reach
the last child with polio vaccine had begun. “Our race to reach the last
child is a race against time,” Annan said. “If we do not seize the
chance now, the virus will regain its grip and the opportunity will elude
us forever.”
Mr. Annan’s statement came during an unprecedented
gathering of leading players in the polio eradication effort, including
TimeWarner Vice-Chairman Ted Turner, Rotary International President Frank
Devlyn, WHO Director-General Dr. Gro Harlem Brundtland, UNICEF Executive
Director Carol Bellamy, government representatives from polio-affected
countries, corporate and public sector donors, and actress Mia Farrow, who
suffered from polio as a child and whose son Thaddeus is paralyzed by
polio.
Delegates gathered at UN headquarters in New York to
galvanize the necessary financial resources and political will to certify
the world polio-free in 2005, a target set in 1988. Spearheading the
initiative are the World Health Organization, Rotary International, the US
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the UN Children’s Fund
(UNICEF).
At the meeting, over 250 summit participants pledged to
help overcome the challenges: poliovirus will still be circulating in up
to 20 countries by the end of this year, and US$450 million in new funding
is needed to conquer the disease in those places. These 20 high risk
countries also present some of the most difficult logistical challenges to
polio eradication, including populations that are geographically isolated
and difficult to reach and, in a handful of countries, living in the midst
of severe civil conflict.
WHO Director-General Gro Harlem Brundtland opened the
summit by unveiling the Strategic Plan 2001-2005, which details the steps
required to stop transmission of the wild poliovirus worldwide within the
next 24 months; safely contain laboratory stocks of the virus; certify the
world polio-free by 2005; and eventually end immunization against polio.
“We know what we have to do. We have the tools and
the strategy to do it. The challenges outlined can be surmounted, but only
if current and new partners commit their support through 2005. I urge you
all to play your part in making history,” Brundtland said.
Summit co-chair Carol Bellamy, Executive Director of
UNICEF, praised the “truly Olympian efforts” of all the partners
working toward polio eradication, but stressed that complacency or fatigue
would jeopardize the initiative. “Reaching our goals will require
inspired teamwork from all of us,” Bellamy told the polio partners.
“Transporting fresh polio vaccine from the plants where it is
manufactured to the remote regions where it is needed is a relay race
requiring many hands. At the starting line of that relay are the vaccine
producers who must continue to ensure timely production,” Bellamy said.
A region-wide surge in eradication activities will
cover 17 countries in west and central Africa next month. The
“synchronized” immunization campaign seeks to reach 70 million
children under age five in a single week, and is the largest regional
health initiative ever undertaken in Africa.
Ted Turner, who is also chair of the philanthropic UN
Foundation, committed to help raise funds. Frank Devlyn, president of
Rotary International, which has members in 163 countries, pledged to
support fundraising and provide additional volunteers for the increasingly
intense house-to-house immunization efforts that have become key to
reaching every child with polio vaccine. Rotary is the leading private
sector partner in the initiative, having contributed $378 million to the
effort to date and committing a total of US$500 million by 2005.
The Global Polio Eradication Initiative also has the
support of national governments; private foundations (such as the UN
Foundation and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation); development banks
(e.g. The World Bank); donor governments (including Australia, Belgium,
Canada, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands,
Portugal, United Kingdom and United States); humanitarian organizations
(such as the International Red Cross and Red Crescent movement) and
corporate partners. Volunteers in developing countries also play a key
role; more than 10 million have participated in mass immunization
campaigns in recent years.
There are presently 30 polio-endemic countries, mainly
in south Asia and sub-Saharan Africa including Angola, the Democratic
Republic of the Congo, Somalia, India and Bangladesh. The number of polio
cases around the world has dropped 95% since 1988, with roughly 7,000
reported cases in 1999 and the number of polio-affected countries expected
to drop to 20 by the end of 2000.
Learning
by computer at the Dutch School
Marianne
learns to ride a horse
James
learns the proper shoulder turn for a good golf swing
Members of the International School of the Regents Band
recently made a trip to Bangkok in order to watch the finals of the Asian
Symphonic Band Competition. It was a pleasure to listen to music played by
the Triam Udom Suksa Symphonic Band and the Montfort Symphonic band, both
finalists in the competition. The students also heard music by a guest
orchestra from China, The Jin Feng Orchestra of Shantou Middle School
Students.