[EQ] Polio Eradication: Strengthening The Weakest Links

Polio Eradication: Strengthening The Weakest Links


Scott Barrett, Earth Institute Professor of Natural Resource Economics at Columbia University
Health Affairs, July-August Volume 28, no. 4 (2009): 1079-1090 - - Delivering On Global Health Issue


Abstract: http://content.healthaffairs.org/cgi/content/abstract/28/4/1079


“…..Polio eradication, like all eradication efforts, is a gamble. If it fails, much of the money spent will have been wasted. If it succeeds, the world will reap a dividend. Success or failure and the magnitude of the dividend depend on a long chain of "weakest links." In this paper I identify these links and explain how the chain can be strengthened.
A crucial vulnerability is the current plan to halt vaccination using the live-attenuated oral polio vaccine in the post-eradication era. This weakest link can be strengthened by efforts that lower the cost to poor countries of vaccinating with the inactivated poliovirus vaccine….”


Diplomacy And The Polio Immunization Boycott In Northern Nigeria


Judith R. Kaufmann and Harley Feldbaum
http://content.healthaffairs.org/cgi/content/abstract/28/4/1091


“…The boycott of polio vaccination in three Northern Nigerian states in 2003 created a global health crisis that was political in origin. This paper traces the diplomatic actions that were taken by the Global Polio Eradication Initiative, the United Nations, and the U.S. government, to restart polio vaccination and resolve the crisis. The polio vaccination boycott in Northern Nigeria provides a useful case study of the practice of global health diplomacy…...”



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