Polio is a horrible, crippling disease. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), of the children who contract polio, 1 of 200 will be irreversibly paralyzed. Of the children who are paralyzed, 5 to 10% will die because their breathing muscles are paralyzed. The Global Polio Eradication Initiative was formed in 1988. That year, more than 350,000 people were paralyzed. So far in 2012 only 181 cases have been reported. Obviously this is a huge success, but unfortunately, it’s not quite enough. As Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC) Director Dr. Frieden states “If we fail to get over the finish line, we will need to continue expensive control measures for the indefinite future…More importantly, without eradication, a resurgence of polio could paralyze more than 200,000 children worldwide every year within a decade.”
Because polio cannot live outside the body for long periods of time (unlike most diseases) it can be eradicated. The only human disease that has been completely eradicated is smallpox.
On February 25, 2012, India was removed from the list of endemic countries, leaving only three countries where polio is endemic: Afghanistan, Nigeria and Pakistan. Eradication in these countries continues to be difficult for various reasons. We can look at some of the causes of why eradication has been difficult in these countries and ongoing solutions to these difficulties by analyzing the issue in a Cause Map, a visual form of Root Cause Analysis.
We begin with the impacts to the goals. Public safety is impacted because of the risk of death and paralysis. Public services are impacted due to the risk of contracting polio. Additionally, the compliance goal is impacted because children are not receiving full vaccinations against polio.
There are myriad reasons for children not receiving full immune protection from vaccination against polio. First is the difficulty finding and accessing children. Many children in endemic areas are nomadic or homeless. The use of “transit teams” – vaccination teams stationed at transportation stations and large crossings – aims to increase vaccination of these children. Children are marked after they receive vaccines, to ensure the vaccines are not repeated and to allow tracking of the success of the program. In many of the endemic areas, children are inaccessible to vaccination teams due to conflict or violence in these areas. In some areas vaccination teams are blocked by local governments or even subject to violence. Some religious and local government leaders do not support the vaccination program, or the makeup of the vaccination teams. Outreach campaigns aim to reach the public, community and religious leaders. The GPEI, WHO and CDC are trying to work with governments and religious organizations to increase acceptance of the vaccines. The creation of small scale immediate immunization response strategies aims to allow fast response when a previously inaccessible area becomes accessible, to maximize immunization during that time.
Some parents will not allow their children to be vaccinated. In many cultures, women will not open the door to men. Vaccination teams will generally include at least one woman to help increase acceptance from parents. Parents are also reluctant to vaccinate newborns, or children who are sick or sleeping. The importance of vaccinating these children is being added to outreach information and polio hotlines are being created to attempt to provide information to reluctant parents. Because at least four doses of the polio vaccine are required to fully protect against the disease, these issues are magnified. Permanent polio teams in the endemic areas aim to maximize the immunization coverage and attempt to eradicate this disease once and for all.
To view the Outline and Cause Map, please click “Download PDF” above. Or click here to read more.