POST 01350E: POLIO—CONTROL STRATEGY WILL ETERNALISE COSTS

POST 01350E: POLIO—CONTROL STRATEGY WILL ETERNALISE COSTS FOLLOW UP ON POSTS: 01339E, 01341E, 013342E, 01343E, 01344E, 01345E, 01346E & 01348E 13 NOVEMBER 2008 ****************************************** Mogens, Perhaps I misunderstand your question, but my last response started with "As a response to Mogens, no you are not correct. My whole point is that there are 2 options: (1) continue and finish eradication or (2) stop supplementary immunization (and surveillance, because that will collapse in no time) and accept the consequences in terms of re-emergence of polio in all countries with lower than excellent routine coverage. My whole point is that a control strategy would cost almost as much as eradication, but eternalise those costs and is therefore not a viable option." In other words a control strategy is not a viable option. The objective is eradication and none of us would be able to do this work if we would have lost the hope of succeeding. I don't pretend we are not confronted with huge difficulties, but we have reason to believe they can and should be overcome. Funds are provided by a large number of donors, like Rotary, CDC, Bill and Melinda Gates foundation, DFID and many others. Our advisory body is the Advisory Committee for Polio Eradication (ACPE), which like SAGE consists of a number of international scientists and specialists in public health. The ACPE will meet next week (as per email dated: 10.11.2008). Hans Everts WHO Geneva Technical officer EPI Post generated using Mail2Forum (http://www.mail2forum.com)