Millions Saved: Eliminating Polio in Latin America and the Caribbean
2007
This case describes the introduction of the oral polio vaccine (OPV) campaign in Latin and the Caribbean to eradicate polio. Beginning in 1985, the Pan American Health Organization began a regional polio eradication campaign to complement routine immunization efforts of the newly formed Expanded Programme on Immunization. To bolster coverage in areas with weak vaccine distribution delivery, all children received a vaccination twice a year regardless of their previous vaccination history. During the final stages of the campaign community health workers went door-to-door in communities with existing polio cases or that had low coverage. Finally, surveillance was used to track outbreaks. By mid-2006 just four countries (instead of the 125 in 1988) were still endemic and only a total of 700 cases had been reported.
This case study is part of Millions Saved, a collection of case studies produced by the Center for Global Development that describes successful examples of large-scale efforts to improve health in low- and middle-income countries, as well as promising interventions that fell short of their health targets when scaled-up in real world conditions.
Millions Saved: Eliminating Polio in Latin America and the Caribbean
Source:
Levine R. Eliminating Polio in Latin America and the Caribbean. Center for Global Development 2007. http://www.cgdev.org/page/case-5-eliminating-polio-latin-america-and-caribbean.