The United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef) on Wednesday declared that Egypt is free from polio, a disease that has plagued this country since as far back as the ancient times.
The announcement by Unicef and partners in the Global Polio Eradication Initiative comes just more than a year after the last positive sample of polio was detected in Egypt and almost two years after the last case of polio was reported.
”Polio eradication has been a national endeavour in this country. Egypt has every reason to be proud of its contribution to the global campaign against this disease,” said Erma Manoncourt, Unicef representative in Egypt.
The endemic polio has, according to archaeological evidence, been detected among children living along the Nile valley in the pharaonic times. By 1988, when the global eradication effort began, Egypt was reporting several thousand cases every year.
According to a statement released by Unicef on Wednesday, the eradication of polio from Egypt is the outcome of efforts led by tens of thousands of health workers and vaccinators working under a broad alliance of national and international organisations.
Egypt has been among the last handful of countries around the world suffering from the virus. Only four countries in the world now have endemic polio: Nigeria, India, Pakistan and Afghanistan.
Egypt’s ministry of health and population has implemented immunisation campaigns to vaccinate children aged five or under, carried out by teams that go door to door across the country, Unicef said.
Egypt has been receiving technical and financial support from various organisations, including the World Health Organisation, Unicef, Rotary International, the United States Agency for International Development and the Japanese government. — Sapa-dpa