Am J Public Health. 2014 Oct 16:e1-e8. [Epub ahead of print]

A Public Health Achievement Under Adversity: The Eradication of Poliomyelitis From Peru, 1991.

Sobti D1, Cueto M, He Y.

Author information

• 1At the time of the study, Deepak Sobti was a chief resident and Yuan He was a medical and public health student at the University of Arizona, Tucson. Marcos Cueto is with the Casa de Oswaldo Cruz, Oswaldo Cruz Foundation (FIOCRUZ), Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

Abstract

The fight to achieve global eradication of poliomyelitis continues. Although native transmission of poliovirus was halted in the Western Hemisphere by the early 1990s, and only a few cases have been imported in the past few years, much of Latin America's story remains to be told. Peru conducted a successful flexible, or flattened, vertical campaign in 1991. The initial disease-oriented programs began to collaborate with community-oriented primary health care systems, thus strengthening public-private partnerships and enabling the common goal of poliomyelitis eradication to prevail despite rampant terrorism, economic instability, and political turmoil. Committed leaders in Peru's Ministry of Health, the Pan American Health Organization, and Rotary International, as well as dedicated health workers who acted with missionary zeal, facilitated acquisition of adequate technologies, coordinated work at the local level, and increased community engagement, despite sometimes being unable to institutionalize public health improvements.