Health minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang deClared war against polio during the official launch of the countdown to a polio-free South Africa held at Lenyenye Stadium last Thursday afternoon.

During the function, which was also attended by Limpopo Premier Ngoako Ramatlhodi and his health MEC Sello Moloto, Gauteng MEC for Health Dr Gwen Ramakgopa, SADC health ministers, World Health Representatives, UNICEF representatives, Members of the National Advisory Group on Immunisation, The Polio Expert Committee, Inter-Country Certification Committee, the EPI managers and NGOs, Tshabalala-Msimang urged all stakeholders to join hands in polio eradication as a global effort.

She said that all countries had to join hands so that they could do away with polio before December 31 2005, which is the set deadline. "We need commitment from the public and private health sectors, the media and the communities in this initiative.

"One of the paradoxes of an eradication initiative is that control efforts must be intensified as the disease disappears. We need to accelerate house to house delivery of vaccine and we need to improve surveillance systems so that every paralyzed child is investigated for polio so that we can confidently say that countries, regions and the entire world is polio free," said Tshabalala-Msimang.

Although South Africa has not had a confirmed case of polio for 12 year, Tshablala said we still do not meet the WHO's criteria to be certified polio-free as we are not sufficiently rigorous in detecting cases that show polio-like symptoms of acute flaccid paralysis, reporting them and ruling out the possibility of polio by laboratory tests.

Tshabalala-Msimang said it was through immunization that smallpox, once a disfiguring disease, was eradicated. In the same way, she said, immunization would set the world free of polio, a disease that causes paralysis and sometimes death.

She also said our country puts the needs of children first, and children should not be deprived of immunization. "In this country, immunization is sustained and linked with the Integrated Management of Childhood Illness strategy. We build a strong and uniform approach in providing our children with the best health care available," said Tshabalala-Msimang.

"Our country cannot afford to have children crippled or killed by polio when there is an effective and safe vaccine which is readily available. This is why we encourage parents, caregivers and communities to support our immunization program".

She also encouraged parents, grandparents and caregivers to ensure that all children are presented to health facilities to receive their regular vaccinations, especially polio vaccine like what was done in 1995, 1996, 1997 and 2000.

She appealed to the broader community to help to ensure that polio is eradicated by reporting all cases of suspected polio which can be recognized by sudden weakness or lameness of either arm or leg in children under the age of 15 years, which is not caused by injury.

"Polio does not respect boundaries. If a single child remains infected with the wild polio virus, children in all the provinces and neighboring countries can be at risk of contracting the virus because the polio virus can be easily imported across national borders and can spread easily.