This Week

Polio this week as of 27 April 2022

Headlines

• This week, Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI) partners launched the ‘Investment Case’ for polio eradication, at a virtual event.  The Investment Case is the GPEI sister-document to the Polio Eradication Strategy 2022-2026, and outlines the humanitarian and economic benefits of polio eradication.  During the event, the Government of Germany, which holds G7 presidency in 2022, announced that the country will co-host a pledging moment for the GPEI Strategy during the 2022 World Health Summit in October.  A recording of the virtual event is available online here.
• In Pakistan, a new case of wild poliovirus type 1 (WPV1) has been reported from North Waziristan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, with onset of paralysis on 9 April.  It is the first reported WPV1 case from the country since January 2021.  The isolated WPV1 is linked to virus isolated from an environmental sample from Bannu, in the same province, collected on 5 April.  Detection of low-level transmission is not unexpected at this stage in Pakistan’s eradication effort, and despite reporting of these latest isolates, the country continues to have record-low levels of WPV1 transmission in the country, which must be capitalized on.  Similar low-level transmission was also seen in other countries during their ‘end game’ of their eradication efforts, including in Nigeria, India and Egypt.  In response to detection of this case, the National and Provincial Polio Emergency Operations Centres have deployed teams to conduct a full field investigation, and have launched emergency immunization campaigns to prevent further spread from the area to other parts of the country or across the border.
• Rotary International President Shekhar Mehta, WHO GPEI Director Aidan O’Leary and Dr Sarthak Das, Chief Executive Officer of the Asia Pacific Leaders Malaria Alliance offer their views on what lessons and experiences from polio and malaria can be drawn for existing and future pandemics, in an op-ed published in Health Policy Watch.  Read it here.
• Comprehensive outbreak response in Tajikistan successfully stops outbreak:  an outbreak response assessment concluded that a cVDPV2 outbreak that started in January 2021 has been stopped, thanks to comprehensive and rapid response with novel oral polio vaccine type 2 (nOPV2).  More
• Summary of new polioviruses this week:
  – Pakistan: one WPV1 case and one positive environmental sample
  – DR Congo: four cVDPV2 cases
  – Israel: 13 cVDPV3 positive environmental samples
  – Nigeria: one cVDPV2 case
  – Occupied Palestinian territory: seven cVDPV3 positive environmental samples
  – Somalia: one cVDPV2 case