EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
At the beginning of 2017, progress continued towards each of the Endgame Plan’s four objectives. The world has never been closer to eradicating polio, with fewer cases in fewer areas of fewer countries than at any time in the past.
Pakistan and Afghanistan continued to intensify eradication efforts and implement their respective national emergency action plans, overseen by each country’s head of state. They continued to treat the virus transmission as a single epidemiological block and focused on coordinating activities in both countries.
In Nigeria, and across the Lake Chad subregion, outbreak response persisted in reaction to the detection of wild poliovirus type 1 (WPV1) in Borno in August 2016, Nigeria, the first WPV detected in the country since 2014. It was a sobering reminder of the fragility of progress and of the dangers of subnational surveillance gaps and low-level residual transmission. Although no new cases have been reported from Nigeria since last August, undetected ongoing transmission was assumed in parts of Borno as it remains inaccessible.
In May 2017, confirmation was received of new circulating vaccine-derived poliovirus type 2 (cVDPV2) outbreaks in both the Syrian Arab Republic and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The emergence of new cVDPV2 in the 12- to 18-month period following the globally coordinated switch from trivalent oral polio vaccine (tOPV) to bivalent oral polio vaccine (bOPV) in April 2016 was anticipated, with the most at-risk areas foreseen to be those with weak health systems, insecurity or inaccessibility. In preparation for the anticipated risks, internationally-agreed outbreak response protocols had been established to rapidly address cVDPV2 in the post-switch era, including by maintaining a global stockpile of monovalent OPV type 2 (mOPV2). An outbreak response is now under way in both countries to rapidly stop these strains. In the Syrian Arab Republic, the same response strategies were employed that successfully stopped a WPV1 outbreak in the same area of the country in 2013/2014.
These outbreaks underscored the continued risk posed by immunity gaps anywhere in the world, more than any risks associated with the vaccine. In areas of adequate immunity levels, surveillance for type 2 polioviruses from any source revealed a steady and rapid decline of these strains’ persistence. These outbreaks are tragic, in particular for the children who have so far been paralysed by these strains, and emphasize the urgent need to fully withdraw all tOPV stock everywhere. By extension, it also highlights the need to fully withdraw all OPV use, once the remaining strains of WPVs (types 1 and 3) have been declared as eradicated.
A global supply constraint of inactivated polio vaccine (IPV) continued to be managed carefully, allocating available supply to areas deemed at highest risk of cVDPV2 emergence.
Increasing clinical evidence indicates that fractional dose IPV provides equal (and in a two-dose schedule, even superior) protection to full dose IPV, but this approach is already stretching limited supply.
On containment, the GPEI continued to work with countries to accelerate efforts to identify all facilities retaining poliovirus stock, reduce their number to an absolute minimum and put in place all necessary biosafety conditions to ensure the safe handling of all residual stock. Polio transition planning will continue to be intensified through 2017. The 16 countries with the greatest polio-funded infrastructure drafted and are finalizing their transition plans. Transition planning and implementation are being conducted in such a manner as to minimize any associated programme-related risks and to ensure that a successful and lasting polio-free world will be achieved as rapidly and efficiently as possible. A postcertification strategy, request by Member States at the May 2017 World Health Assembly, is being developed and will be presented to the World Health Assembly in 2018, specifying the global technical standards that will be needed after the certification of wild poliovirus eradication to maintain a polio-free world.
Thanks to the generous continuing support of the international development community, including Member States (especially the countries where poliomyelitis is endemic and the generous donors to the GPEI) as well as multilateral and bilateral organizations, development banks, foundations and Rotary International, the budget for 2017 for planned activities was fully financed. At an extraordinary pledging moment at the Rotary International convention in June 2017 in Atlanta, USA, numerous public- and private-sector partners from around the world joined Rotary in announcing new commitments, bringing total pledges against the additional US$ 1.5 billion budget to US$ 1.2 billion. Securing a lasting polio-free world will not only be associated with significant humanitarian and global health benefits but also with economic advantages, as eradicating polio worldwide will result in global savings of US$ 50 billion.