Guardian

• Nigeria records no new case, immunisation for mid-June

• ‘Obese children have increased risk of diabetes, hypertension, cancer’

THE Independent Monitoring Board (IMB) for polio eradication, which was set up by the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI), said Sunday that polio transmission could be stopped by end of 2014 if key fundamental changes are made.

A report of the IMB’s May meeting, which was published Sunday, commended the programme on the fundamental changes that have transformed the effort into a more responsive and coordinated health initiative that has brought polio to the lowest levels ever.

Meanwhile, IMB has put forward key recommendations to address fundamental changes that are still needed, noting: “While poliovirus has been knocked down, it is certainly not knocked out. In the midst of so many strengths, why focus on the weaknesses, because the poliovirus will seize on them.

“Impressive as recent progress has been, the IMB is firmly of the view that the task of stopping transmission in the remaining endemic areas is enormous and should not be under-estimated.”

However, the World Health Organisation (WHO) is worried that over 75 per cent of overweight children live in developing countries, with the prevalence in Africa almost doubling in the last 20 years, and that obese children are more likely to be obese as adults, with an increased risk of diabetes and other diseases.

According to new information released Sunday by WHO, many low and middle-income countries are neglecting overweight and obesity as major health threats, with policies in place to tackle under-nutrition but lacking in policies to halt the growing burden of diseases due to the rise of overweight and obesity.

The WHO Guidance, to help countries close these policy gaps, is a consolidated package of 24 Essential Nutrition Actions, which outlines the most effective ways that countries can improve their peoples’ nutritional status by preventing both under-nutrition and overweight. There are many factors during pregnancy and infancy that can affect an older child’s and an adult’s weight.

Meanwhile, according to the Weekly Polio Update published by GPEI, no new Wild Polio Virus (WPV) case was reported in the past week in Nigeria. The total number of WPV cases for 2013 remains 24. The most recent WPV case had outset of paralysis on April 25, WPV Type One (WPV1) from Borno.

According to the report, no new case of Circulating Vaccine-Derived Polio Virus type two (cVDPV2) was reported in the past week. The most recent cVDPV2 case had onset of paralysis on November 24, 2012, from Kebbi. It noted that preparations are ongoing for the next sub-national Immunisation Plus Days (IPDs) in mid-June.

In Israel, nevertheless, WPV1 was isolated from sewage samples collected on April 9, 2013, in Rahat, southern Israel. The virus has been detected in sewage only; no case of paralytic polio has been reported. Genetic sequencing and epidemiological investigations are ongoing to determine its origin.

According to a statement from GPEI, preliminary analyses indicate the strain is not related to the virus currently affecting the Horn of Africa. The virus isolate was detected through routine environmental surveillance in Israel that involves regular testing of sewage water. Israel has been free of indigenous WPV transmission since 1988.

In the past, wild poliovirus has been detected in environmental samples collected in this region between 1991 and 2002 without occurrence of cases of paralytic polio in the area. Following detection of the wild poliovirus, health authorities in Israel are conducting a full epidemiological and public health investigation, actively searching for potential cases of paralytic polio, as well as for any unimmunised persons.

According to the Director of WHO Department of Nutrition for Health and Development, Dr. Francesco Branca, “to avoid a massive explosion of nutrition problems in the next generation, policymakers urgently need to give more attention to improving the nutritional status of pregnant women and adolescent girls who will become mothers of the next generation.”

WHO said that under-nutrition, obesity and overweight are forms of malnutrition with their causes and consequences closely linked to inadequacies in the food system.