FORGOTTEN DISEASES REAR THEIR UGLY HEADS
Walter Dowdle, PhD, The Task Force for Global Health
"Public health threats abroad are public health threats here."
Following a highly distinguished career as a researcher at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Walter Dowdle, PhD, is putting his considerable energies and talent to work on one mission: eradicating polio globally. Americans of a certain age and generation have the haunting memories of the deadly polio epidemic in the 1950s. Although the last reported incident of polio in the United States was more than 30 years ago-and medical research and a widespread international effort have eliminated the disease from most countries-Dowdle knows that the fight against polio has not been won. "Besides the fact that people and children are still suffering and dying from this debilitating disease, the rationale for eradicating polio applies for all of us," says Dowdle. "We are a global society, and as long as there is potential for an outbreak, there is potential for transmission, anywhere."
Dowdle knows polio about as much as any one person can. He has been a consultant on how to contain the polio virus for the World Health Organization's Global Polio Eradication Initiative, the largest internationally coordinated public health partnership which has invested ~$6 billion since it was launched in 1988. He also works with a public/private group to create the needed resources and capabilities to develop anti-polio drugs. To date, the Initiative has been successful at reducing the number of cases of polio by nearly 100 percent - from 350,000 cases in 1988 to 1,997 cases in 2006, saving about five million lives from a lifetime of paralysis or death.
Afghanistan, India, Nigeria and Pakistan are the only countries in the world that are still burdened by this crippling disease, down from more than 125 in 1988. And WHO warns that "between 2003 and 2005, 25 previously polio-free countries were re-infected with the virus." Dowdle echoes WHO's warning, stating that as long as there is one unvaccinated child, there is a global public health risk. "Every time we get close to eradication, something happens... outbreaks, civil unrest, political problems. Most countries don't have high the rates of regular vaccinations like we do here in the U.S., so polio spreads very quickly once it is transmitted."
That's where Dowdle and his partnerships come in. "My job is about ensuring strong public health systems worldwide - which is critical to eradicating diseases everywhere. U.S. leadership is largely attributed to our exemplary public health system - we are transferring our skills and knowledge to other countries in order to strengthen their own capabilities and efforts in public health. A strong public health system is crucial to eradicating transmissible diseases, and our own safety at home. Public health threats abroad are public health threats here."
"Transmissible diseases are global, and if you want to take care of diseases in this country, you must think globally. Diseases we thought were gone from this country continue to come back. To be free from the threat of the disease means to be free from the disease completely."
In a 2007 study, Harvard School of Public Health analyzed the costs and health outcomes of control and eradication options, and found that the relatively high short-term costs of global polio eradication will ultimately be much lower than the long-term financial and human health costs required to control polio forever. Dowdle adds, "And if we delay, we risk turning back on all the progress of this investment."