"Seminar: “Polio Eradication: Are We Close to Ending the Second Disease in Human History? - Highlights from Lebanon and the World” "

In the event of the World Polio Day, the School of Pharmacy at Bekaa campus hosted a seminar entitled: “Polio Eradication: Are We Close to Ending the Second Disease in Human History? - Highlights from Lebanon and the World”. The seminar was delivered by Dr. Abdullatif Alwaqedi, MD, who is the WHO Global Polio Eradication Initiative consultant in Lebanon since July 2016, and the WHO STOP-polio team consultant in Lebanon since May 2014. Dr. Alwaqedi’s work especially involves the surveillance of polio, where he participated in detection and mitigation of polio outbreak in Yemen, and supervised WHO and UNICEF polio awareness campaigns. In Lebanon, Dr. Alwaqedi participated in several polio activities including: update of standard guidelines for polio surveillance, preparation of national standard operations in response to polio virus importation, planning and improvement of polio campaigns, as well as training and supervision of vaccination programs. In his presentation, Dr. Alwaqedi highlighted main properties of polio, and discussed the comprehensive Polio Eradication Strategic Plan that was internationally launched by health authorities, scientific experts, health initiatives, and other stakeholders. This plan aims at eradication of polio by bringing together the latest scientific knowledge on the virus, tracking its epidemiologic status, and preventing infection through immunization. He elaborated the use of polio vaccines and how it has changed the history of the disease, and cited many live examples about his experience with polio cases.