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Mr
President,
Your Excellencies,
Mr Ravizza, from Rotary
International,
Mr Ambassador,
Mr Governor,
Distinguished Guests,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Je tiens, tout d'abord, à vous remercier de
m'avoir invitée ici pour cette manifestation importante. Le lancement
de ces journées et les activités de vaccination synchronisées qui
suivront sont un nouveau élément essentiel de notre assaut final
contre la poliomyélite.
Grâce à vos efforts, la santé publique
internationale arrive à un tournant historique - l'éradication
mondiale de la polio. J’espère que vous réussirez à administrer,
ces prochains jours le vaccin à tous les enfants. Vous contribuerez
de façon déterminante à interrompre la transmission du virus qui
paralyse depuis trop longtemps un trop grand nombre d'enfants en
Afrique.
En éradiquant de toute urgence la poliomyélite,
nous pouvons améliorer sans délai la santé pour tous. Nous
contribuerons à mettre en place des systèmes de santé renforcés
capables de faciliter la prévention et le traitement des autres
maladies.
Here in this country, you have planned well, and
worked hard to immunize more than 10 million children - under very
difficult conditions. I am very impressed with the improved
surveillance throughout the country allowing us to target this year's
immunization days even better.
The neighbouring countries represented here today
have also made excellent progress. Gabon has not found a poliovirus
for several years. In Congo, an outbreak last year sparked renewed
efforts to improve immunization coverage. And in Angola, where the
poliovirus still circulates intensely, improvements have been made in
both immunization and surveillance activities.
Your efforts are bringing not only the African
continent, but the entire planet closer to eradicating the wild
poliovirus. In a united, global effort, National Immunization Days are
taking place in countries all over the world. Last year 550 million
children were immunized against polio - in over 80 countries in South
America, China, India, Europe and of course here in Africa. This
global movement has resulted in the lowest number of polio cases in
human history - a full 99 % reduction since we began the Global Polio
Eradication Initiative in 1988.
Much of this success is due to the very same
strategies you are using here. Last year, 17 West and Central African
countries "synchronized" their National Immunization Days.
The result - 76 million children protected in one short week and then
a month later, leading to a major fall in the number of polio cases in
the region.
Today, for the first time, Angola, Congo, the
Democratic Republic of Congo and Gabon will begin their synchronized
NIDs. I congratulate the Ministers of Health for their collective
vision and actions to make this happen. By synchronizing your efforts,
you can reach more children than ever before.
You are planning to access children who may never
have seen a health worker - giving them their very first health
service. You will immunize children crossing borders, who otherwise
would have been missed. And, you will go house-to-house, finding every
single child under five and ensuring they receive the protective polio
drops. Experience here and indeed around the world has proven that by
going house to house, you will reach many more children. By using this
strategy during synchronized NIDs, you can succeed in kicking the
polio virus out of this region - leading to a polio-free Africa, and a
polio-free world.
The polio eradication programme in this country is
reaching more children in more districts, more often and more
effectively than any other programme. It is providing a basis for
other national public health efforts - including the surveillance of
diseases, improvement in vitamin A status, and response to outbreaks.
This focus on the health of all people contributes to equity and
national development. As the national capacity to promote public
health increases with success in eradicating polio, efforts can be
extended to other priority conditions - such as measles, malaria and
HIV/AIDS.
Mr President,
The challenges to polio eradication and public
health remain substantial. Great progress has been made in this region
but it still represents one of the few regions where the virus
continues to circulate and attack children. In 2000, 4 out of every 10
African children paralysed by polio came from four countries.
Accessing every child remains a challenge - and it
is my hope that all families, wherever they live, can have their
children under five immunized.
Together with Carol Bellamy, Executive Director of
UNICEF, I am making a strong appeal: Today, the people of Angola,
Congo, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Gabon are starting out on
an extraordinary effort to immunize over 15 million children. It is
essential that all these children receive polio vaccine if we are to
deliver the promise of a polio-free world. We urge the leaders of
these countries, and all parties involved in conflict, to respect the
coming days as days of tranquillity to ensure the safe passage of
health workers and volunteers. They need to administer polio
vaccine to all children over the coming week, and again in August and
September of this year.
We owe this to the children. For as long as the
wild poliovirus circulates in this region, it continues to threaten
children all over this continent. This was proven all too tragically
last year, when a virus from Angola caused an outbreak in Cape Verde -
paralysing 56 people, and killing many.
I appeal to Ministers of Health to maintain a high
standard of surveillance. It enables us to find the last pockets of
polio and mop them up. Surveillance is also the only way we can assure
ourselves we have found the very last virus. I encourage all countries
to achieve and maintain their surveillance efforts to this standard.
I appeal to families, too. When the health worker
or volunteer comes to your homes, please have your children immunized.
Remember that by doing this, you are protecting your child, and also
your neighbour’s children, from polio. You are contributing to
better health in your country - and to the achievement of a global
goal, which will benefit all children, for all time.
Again, congratulations to all of you who are
contributing to the achievement of this global public good. Thank you
to our partners - to Rotary International, the Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention, and UNICEF - and to the donors: We are
grateful. I also want to extend our warm appreciation to the health
workers and the volunteers who will spend the next few days walking
many, many kilometres finding and immunizing every single child.
En contribuant aujourd'hui à l'éradication de la
poliomyélite, vous aidez à améliorer les services de santé de
demain. Nous pouvons, et nous devons, utiliser les solides fondations
jetées ici par le programme d'éradication de la poliomyélite pour
dispenser plus de soins de santé aux populations.
Je sais qu'en continuant à travailler ensemble
nous pourrons faire de ces journées nationales de vaccination une
immense réussite. Ensemble, nous repousserons la poliomyélite hors
de l'Afrique. Ensemble, nous réaliserons un monde sans poliomyélite.
Je vous remercie. |
