News
The Fight Against Polio
"This is a devastating disease for children. It cripples. It maims. It occasionally kills. Children in particular have a miserable life affected by polio. These are the crawlers on the street. These are people begging for food. They really don't have much of a future, and I think we can provide them with a good future, just by a simple vaccination." - USAID Worldwide Polio Eradication Coordinator Ellyn Ogden
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Churches and shrines, such as this one in Ethiopia, may be the first places to see a child with polio. Shrine keepers are trained in how to report the case to health authorities.
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Gaining the support of Islamic clerics has been instrumental in overcoming false rumors that the vaccine is a plot to harm Muslim children.
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In a remote village in Ethiopia, this girl shows all of the signs of acute flaccid paralysis - the signal condition for polio.
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External monitoring to verify the quality of the immunization coverage and community acceptance of vaccination is critical to the success of polio eradication.