CARE's Last Child Documentary Highlights World on the Brink of Polio Eradication

CARE
Tuesday, 26 March 2002

CARE, the international humanitarian organization, is producing a one-hour documentary, The Last Child: The Global Race to End Polio, to raise awareness of the largest public health initiative in history -- the global effort to eliminate all polio cases by 2003. Reaching this goal would make polio only the second disease ever to be eradicated by mankind.

Prior to discovery of the polio vaccine in the 1950s, poliomyelitis was one of the most deadly and crippling diseases of our time. Still, today millions of people worldwide -- including many children in the developing world -- remain paralyzed from the virus, unable to walk without the help of leg braces or breathe without devices such as the "iron lung." Widespread use of this vaccine has eliminated polio from vast regions of the world where it was once pervasive.

Shot in war zones, urban slums and remote villages, The Last Child documents how close the world is to eradicating polio today as there are now less than 1,000 reported cases, compared to 350,000 cases in 1988.

A story of heroes working against great odds, The Last Child reveals the daunting obstacles to achieving global polio eradication -- from civil wars, to virus mutations, to competing health priorities. Viewers will learn why experts are saying that without global eradication, polio could re-emerge to threaten world health.

The Last Child profiles people who risk their lives to eradicate the disease and includes:

- Dodging anarchy in Somalia with Ali Moallin, the world's last smallpox victim, as he vaccinates his countrymen against polio;

- Negotiating with warring factions in Angola to allow immunizations;

- Mobilizing door-to-door immunization campaigns around polio "hot spots" in India;

- Tracking down new outbreaks with medical detective Dr. Olen Kew, from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; and

- Combating the vaccine-derived outbreak in Haiti with Dr. Ciro de Quadros, who led the fight to erase polio from the Western world.

Designed for nationwide broadcast, The Last Child has the potential to reach millions of households in the United States, including the more than 300,000 American adult polio survivors. The program also will be shown at universities, hospitals, libraries, museums and military bases and will be made available through home rental outlets and the CARE bookstore online.

Accompanying the program is The Last Child's official website, www.lastchild.org. This site features a short video trailer and information on the program. In the future, the site will include schedules of broadcasts and screenings, interviews with experts from the film, a "cases remaining" countdown, a world map highlighting remaining polio areas and information on how viewers can help eradicate the disease.

For more information, or to contact CARE, see their website at: www.care.org