Polio, conflict and distrust: a global public health emergency

摘要

Despite much recent talk about the imminent eradication of polio (e.g. Groce, Banks, and Stein 2014), on 5 May 2014 the World Health Organisation (WHO) released a statement identifying the international spread of polio through the early months of 2014 as a public health emergency of international concern (WHO 2014). As recently as 2012 polio transmission seemed to have virtually ceased beyond the three countries in which it remains endemic -Afghanistan, Pakistan and Nigeria. Its recent resurgence in countries such as Syria, Cameroon, Iraq and Equatorial Guinea has been widely seen as a significant set-back. Complete global eradication now seems much further away than had previously been thought.