The World Health Organization (WHO) announced on Monday that polio has become a worldwide public health emergency, threatening to spread dramatically in the next couple of months.
Despite nearly three decades of trying to mitigate the contagiously crippling disease, WHO has identified at least 10 countries in Africa, Asia, and the Middle East where polio outbreaks have been documented in the recent past. The disease has been deemed an "extraordinary event" that called for international response, especially from vulnerable countries like Syria, Pakistan, Cameroon, Afghanistan and Nigeria.
The usual victims of the disease are children aged five and below. Most often, people become infected with polio through contaminated water. While a specific cure has not yet been found, there are several vaccines given to children at health centers.
Though the agency had successfully eradicated the disease in India, with no new cases reported for a full year in February 2012, the battle against polio is still far from over.
WHO officials are worried about the alarming number of rising polio cases in both Afghanistan and Nigeria. Moreover, its effort to contain the disease and abort its spread in 24 other high-risk countries has been jeopardized by budget shortfalls.
Critics analyzed that the announcement on Monday does not make a huge impact for all of the affected countries. Aside from dealing with polio, the governments there are also faced with pressing issues, including widespread poverty and armed insurrection.
"What happens when you continue whipping a horse to go ever faster, no matter how rapidly he is already running?" Dr. Donald A. Henderson asked during an interview with the Associated Press. Henderson led the agency's successful initiative to finally eradicate smallpox, the only human disease ever that had been wiped off the face of the earth.
The World Health Organization and its partners, including the U.S Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), have stood by their goal to eradicate polio in the next four years with no intention to extend the deadline.
