The global initiative to eradicate polio- A review of Nigeria's situation

Poliomyelitis is one of the worlds remaining vaccine preventable infectious diseases. In 1988 the World Health Assembly in its general assembly resolved to eradicate polio in the year 2000 and the Global Initiative to Eradicate Polio was launched. ^ This initiative sprang from the successful eradication of smallpox from the world in the year 1979, and the World Health Organization sought to eradicate polio from the world's populations by the year 2000. ^ Several years have passed since this objective was launched, and while some advances have been made, the goal of global eradication remains elusive. At this present time (2007), only four countries are considered polio endemic regions (areas in which the transmission of wild poliovirus has never been truncated). These countries are Nigeria, India, Pakistan and Afghanistan. ^ This descriptive study seeks to examine the process and progress of polio eradication worldwide, with particular emphasis on the polio eradication efforts in Nigeria, problems encountered and progress that has been made towards attaining this goal. ^ The methodology of this study is an extensive examination of documentation and data from the Global Initiative to Eradicate Poliomyelitis (GPEI), the World Health Organization through the World Health Organization Library Information Service (WHOLIS), UNICEF, the Centers for Disease Control and related peer reviewed journals. ^

HEALTH NEEDS ASSESSMENT METHODOLOGY APPLIED TO ALBAQA REFUGEE CAMP, JORDAN

Health needs assessment is an essential step before planning for a new program or evaluating an existing program. The methodology applied follows principles that might differ from one country to another. The purpose of this study was to determine if the methodology applied to assess health needs in the developing nations, particularly Albaqa Refugee Camp in Jordan, differed from the methodology used to assess health needs in developed nations.^ In this study, a method for health needs assessment was developed using the developed countries published literature and was applied to a developing country, Jordan. However, the method did not apply exactly as expected for several reasons. Some of the problems were the incompleteness and unavailability of the health data, and its poor quality in terms of validity and reliability. Thus, some adaptations were needed and a new health needs assessment methodology specific for a particular developing country is proposed. This method depends on utilizing the primary, secondary, and tertiary data, as well as conducting surveys to collect all the data that could not be found in those data sources.^ In general, it was concluded from this study that there is a difference between methodology of a developed country's health needs assessment and a developing country's, specifically Jordan's, health needs assessment. ^