medicalcondition:polio cases

#Pakistan, #Polio and the #CIA « LRB blog
▻https://www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2017/09/08/jonathan-kennedy/pakistan-polio-and-the-cia

https://cdn.lrb.co.uk/blog/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/drone-strikes-against-polio-cases.png

Between 2004 and 2012, the numbers of #drone strikes and polio cases corresponded closely. Until mid-2008, the US carried out a small number of drone strikes to assist Pakistani military operations and there were relatively few polio cases. From mid-2008, the number of drones strikes increased rapidly, peaking in 2010 at 128. The number of polio cases also rose markedly, reaching 198 cases the following year. Drone strikes were reduced after 2012 because of concerns they were destabilising Pakistan and generating anti-American sentiment. Polio also decreased rapidly between 2011 and 2012.

But it increased sharply from 2012, hitting 306 cases in 2014. Before the assassination of Osama bin Laden in May 2011, the CIA organised a fake hepatitis B vaccination campaign in Abbottabad in a failed attempt to obtain his relatives’ DNA. When the story broke a few months later, it seemed to vindicate people’s suspicions of the polio programmes in the FATA. ‘As long as drone strikes are not stopped in Waziristan,’ one militant leader declared, ‘there will be a ban on administering polio jabs’ because immunisation campaigns are ‘used to spy for America against the Mujahideen’. More than 3.5 million children went unvaccinated as a result of the boycott and associated disruption, in which several health workers were killed. Polio increased in Pakistan and further afield, as the virus spread to Afghanistan and the Middle East.

The CIA have conducted only a handful of drone strikes in Pakistan in recent years and polio is now at an all-time low. But the plan to eradicate the disease may face further setbacks. ‘We can no longer be silent,’ President Trump said last month, ‘about Pakistan’s safe havens for terrorist organisations, the Taliban and other groups that pose a threat to the region and beyond.’

#Poliomyélite #Etats-Unis

Two New #Polio Cases In #Nigeria Are The First Detected In Africa In More Than Two Years : Goats and Soda : NPR
▻http://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2016/08/12/489762952/polio-rears-its-head-again-in-africa

Health officials in Nigeria are gearing up for a massive emergency polio immunization drive after two children were paralyzed by the disease.

The two new polio cases in Nigeria are the first detected on the African continent in more than 2 years.

Nigerian health officials plan to vaccinate nearly 5 million kids across the northeast of the country in an effort to contain this latest outbreak.

The re-emergence of polio in Nigeria is a major setback for global efforts to eradicate the disease.

Prior to this week the polio virus appeared to be on the verge of defeat: Afghanistan and Pakistan were the only countries reporting ongoing transmission of the virus. Including these two children who’ve been paralyzed in Nigeria there’ve been only 21 polio cases reported anywhere in the world this year.

The two Nigerian cases were found in the volatile northeastern state of Borno along the border with Chad. The area is a stronghold of Boko Haram, which has made routine immunization drives difficult. The terror group has publicly denounced the #vaccination campaigns as a Western plot, killed immunizers and made it difficult for government health officials to even enter some parts of the country.

UN : Polio outbreak in Ukraine is a state of emergency - Business Insider
▻http://www.businessinsider.com/ap-un-polio-outbreak-in-ukraine-is-a-state-of-emergency-2015-12

The World Health Organization is urging Ukraine’s health ministry to declare a state of emergency due to a polio outbreak, a move meant to prompt more action from the government in Kiev.

In September, Ukraine announced two polio cases — the first in Europe since 2010.

The U.N. health agency recommended that Ukraine declare a state of emergency and “respond to the polio outbreak as quickly and effectively as possible,” Dorit Nitzan, head of the WHO’s office in Ukraine, told journalists.

Half of Ukraine’s children have not been vaccinated against polio.

Polio is a highly infectious, paralyzing disease on the brink of elimination. Aside from Ukraine, cases have only been reported in six other countries this year, with the majority in Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Une autre forme d’état d’urgence,
où l’état ne fait rien.

#WHO reports two more #polio cases in #syria
▻http://english.al-akhbar.com/content/who-reports-two-more-polio-cases-syria

The #World_Health_Organization said on Tuesday that additional polio cases had been confirmed in two new areas of Syria, including near Damascus and in the northern city of Aleppo near Turkey. “In addition to 15 polio cases in Deir al-Zor province, Syria, two additional cases have been confirmed, one each in rural Damascus and Aleppo,” the organization said on its Twitter account. The incurable virus was confirmed this month in 13 children who became paralyzed. The WHO says polio is expected to spread after a drop in vaccination rates due to the war. read more

#Top_News #UN

#CIA tactics to trap Bin Laden linked with polio crisis, say aid groups | World news | The Guardian
►http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/mar/02/aid-groups-cia-osama-bin-laden-polio-crisis

An alliance of 200 US aid groups has written to the head of the CIA to protest against its use of a doctor to help track Osama bin Laden, linking the agency’s ploy to the polio crisis in Pakistan.

The country recorded the highest number of polio cases in the world last year, a health catastrophe that threatens to spiral out of control.

In July the Guardian revealed that the CIA used a Pakistani doctor, Shakil Afridi, in the hunt for Bin Laden. In the weeks before the 3 May operation to kill Bin Laden, Afridi was instructed to set up a fake vaccination scheme in the town of Abbottabad, in order to gain entry to the house where it was suspected that the al-Qaida chief was living, and extract DNA samples from his family members.

#ONG #santé