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• A comment on Conversation: Live TED Conversation on Polio Eradication: Join TED Speaker Bruce Aylward on July 21st at 4.30-6.30 pm Central European Time

  Jul 21 2011: I'd like to thank everyone who's participated in this TEDConversation - you're obviously getting as hooked on the lure of eradication as we are here at the World Health Organization and in our partner agencies.
  
  This is a great time to be getting involved as the programme has a whole new momentum thanks to the new tactics and tools that have been brought into play over the past year. To finish the job we still need a lot more people like you spreading the word and building support - help spread the great idea of a polio-free world so we have the resources (that's money!) and commitments we need to finish the job and ensure no child ever again knows the pain of polio.

• A reply on Conversation: Live TED Conversation on Polio Eradication: Join TED Speaker Bruce Aylward on July 21st at 4.30-6.30 pm Central European Time

  Jul 21 2011: Hi Mark
  Indeed Pakistan faced a devastating situation, with massive movements of population and the poliovirus moving with them. However in the lower-lying areas you mention, Punjab has had no cases this year thankfully and Sindh can move quickly if it applies the national emergency plan. The real challenge is in the border areas in the north west, where we have our work cut out for us. The drought situation iin the Horn of Africa is a tragedy. This is fortunately a polio-free area, with countries that have stopped polio before. In the humanitarian response, polio vacccination is already being incorporated.
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  A reply on Conversation: Live TED Conversation on Polio Eradication: Join TED Speaker Bruce Aylward on July 21st at 4.30-6.30 pm Central European Time

  Jul 21 2011: Ari, you are right, and in some countries we are collaborating with disability advocates and rehabilitation groups to help survivors of polio. Once we eradicate polio, no child will have to suffer polio paralysis and no survivor will be haunted by it later in life.
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  A reply on Conversation: Live TED Conversation on Polio Eradication: Join TED Speaker Bruce Aylward on July 21st at 4.30-6.30 pm Central European Time

  Jul 21 2011: Corvida, if you were born after 1950 in an industrialized country, it's pretty unlikely you would meet someone with polio. But anyone who remembers that time knows what it is like - the sudden fever and paralysis, the overnight paralysis of a child who was healthy hours before. As Ari mentioned before, even if you recover from the paralysis, post-polio pain can come back in later years. This is why it is so important to eradicate polio - there is no cure, and no real help for polio survivors, and eradication is the only way we can protect future generations.

• A reply on Conversation: Live TED Conversation on Polio Eradication: Join TED Speaker Bruce Aylward on July 21st at 4.30-6.30 pm Central European Time

  Jul 21 2011: Dear Gary - we look for cash EVERYWHERE! Clearly the starting point has got to be a combination of G8 and OECD countries, but it is critical that the G20 play a greater role to close the financing gap. As important - and almost always under-recognized - is the critical role of the polio-infected countries themselves. Most people are not aware, for example, that the Government of India's domestic contributions to polio eradication have been larger than that of any G8 country or other donor! We are also, especially through our partners, continuing the financing dialogue with the private sector and private individuals - again, Rotary have been the superstars in this regard and we really hope others will join their movement.
  In terms of the vaccine manufacturers, these have been absolutely vital partners in the eradication effort - in the last 5 years, for example, they have developed 4 new vaccines (mOPVs and bOPV) to help address emerging challenges and improve our tools. This past year they did reduce the average price we pay for these products as part of their contribution to the effort. That said, with the financing gap as challenging as it is we will be going back to discuss whether they can still help further on the price of their vaccines!!

• A reply on Conversation: Live TED Conversation on Polio Eradication: Join TED Speaker Bruce Aylward on July 21st at 4.30-6.30 pm Central European Time

  Jul 21 2011: Hi Mark - as you may have seen from another thread, there is no plan to roll-out IPV on a large scale in any of the polio-infected countries. In most of these areas there is very compelling evidence that if they get 4+ doses of OPV into most of their kids polio transmission will stop relatively quickly. That said, we are always exploring whether adding this product in certain settings might help to accelerate the initiative in areas where the population immunity threshold for stopping transmission is particularly high.
  In terms of an IPV switch, I think this would have been superb tough even 5 years ago, but there has been fantastic progress in finding cheaper ways to produce and use this vaccine for a post-eradication era, so I am now very optimistic that this would be feasible.

• A reply on Conversation: Live TED Conversation on Polio Eradication: Join TED Speaker Bruce Aylward on July 21st at 4.30-6.30 pm Central European Time

  Jul 21 2011: Hi Bob - there are still lots of opinions on the potential role of IPV in the eradication programme over the next few years and especially in the 'post-eradication' era. I think that as new, much much cheaper ways for using IPV come on line in the next few years (e.g. fractional doses, reduced dose schedules) an increasing number of countries will explore its use in their routine immunization programmes to protect their populations after wild virus eradication. We have an international expert group working right now on this issue to help establish a formal policy framework for low income countries.
  In terms of Sabin-IPV (i.e. a 'safer for production' version of IPV), clinical trials are ongoing in China and Japan as we speak and a consortium we are working with directly is initiating two additional trials this year . We have also just launched technology transfer projects with two developing countries for this product with the goal of full clinical trials with their products within 36 months.
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  A reply on Conversation: Live TED Conversation on Polio Eradication: Join TED Speaker Bruce Aylward on July 21st at 4.30-6.30 pm Central European Time

  Jul 21 2011: Dear Ari - one of the best sources I have seen for Post Polio syndrome is at http://www.post-polio.org/
  
  Post Polio Syndrome is indeed a dreadful disease - completing eradication of polio itself will also, eventually, eradicate this consequence as well.
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  A reply on Conversation: Live TED Conversation on Polio Eradication: Join TED Speaker Bruce Aylward on July 21st at 4.30-6.30 pm Central European Time

  Jul 21 2011: In fact, it is the community and religious leaders themselves who have been taking the lead on polio eradication efforts in northern Nigeria - they have largely been the reason for the tremendous success (so far...) in that country over the past 18 months. UNICEF and other polio partners play a role in helping fill the gaps when/where this might not happen or where the local efforts of community and religious leaders could benefit from further support. So yes, this tactic is very much still a key part of the eradication effort.
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  A reply on Conversation: Live TED Conversation on Polio Eradication: Join TED Speaker Bruce Aylward on July 21st at 4.30-6.30 pm Central European Time

  Jul 21 2011: Actually these countries used the same tactics as the rest of the world to eradicate polio - high 'routine' immunization coverage, mass immunization campaigns and surveillance - the big difference, compared with countries that are currently polio-affected, was the strength of the underlying health system. These countries were working from a stronger baseline, so to speak, especially due to their stronger routine immunization programmes. This was critical to helping these countries rapidly stop the outbreaks they suffered after importations last year - despite this they still suffered awful outbreaks last year, a stark reminder of the need to complete eradication!