Polio this week as of 24 January 2017
New on http://polioeradication.org/: In one of the final strongholds of the poliovirus, vaccination coverage is improving thanks to the women working to access children.
In Pakistan, we documented some of the high-risk mobile children that must be visited by vaccinators during the low transmission season.
By expanding environmental surveillance, Afghanistan hopes to track the movement of poliovirus with more accuracy than ever before.
Summary of newly-reported viruses this week: Afghanistan: One new case of wild poliovirus type 1 (WPV1) has been reported in Nangarhar province. One new WPV1 positive environmental sample has been reported in Kandahar province. Pakistan: Two new WPV1 positive environmental samples have been reported, one collected from Sindh province, and one from Balochistan province.
See country-specific sections for further details.
Afghanistan
One new case of wild poliovirus type 1 (WPV1) was reported this week from Kama district, Nangarhar province. Onset of this latest case was 1 January 2018.
This is the first officially reported WPV1 case in Afghanistan in 2018, and highlights the challenges faced by the programme in the last few areas where the virus is still circulating, and the importance of identifying and vaccinating every last child.
One new WPV1 positive environmental sample was reported this week, collected in Kandahar district, Kandahar province on 27 December.
A vaccination campaign using bOPV was completed last week, targeting over five million children.
Read the latest polio update from Afghanistan to see information on cases, surveillance and vaccination campaigns.
Pakistan
No new cases of wild poliovirus type 1 (WPV1) were reported in the past week.
The most recent case (by date of onset) was reported in Zhob district, Balochistan province, with onset on 15 November 2017.
The total number of officially reported WPV1 cases in Pakistan in 2017 remains eight. There are no cases reported in 2018.
Two new WPV1 positive environmental samples were reported this week. One was collected from Karachi Site, Sindh province, and one was collected from Killa Abdullah district, Balochistan province. Both samples were collected on 1 January.
A nationwide vaccination campaign using bOPV was completed last week, vaccinating over 37 million children.
Read the latest polio update from Pakistan to see information on cases, surveillance and vaccination campaigns.
Nigeria
No new cases of wild poliovirus type 1 (WPV1) were reported in the past week. The total number of WPV1 cases for 2016 remains four and no cases have been reported in 2017.
The most recent case (by date of onset) was reported in Monguno Local Government Area, Borno, with onset on 21 August 2016.
Nigeria continues to implement an emergency response to the detected WPV1 strain and circulating vaccine-derived poliovirus type 2 (cVDPV2) strains affecting the country (last detected in 2016).
An immunization campaign held in 14 provinces across Nigeria, including Borno, was completed last week. The campaign vaccinated over 26 million children using bOPV.
Detection of polio cases in Nigeria underscores the risk posed by low-level undetected transmission. As part of the emergency response, subnational surveillance continues to be strengthened.
Lake Chad Basin
The detection of wild poliovirus type 1 (WPV1) (Borno state, Nigeria in 2016) and circulating vaccine-derived poliovirus type 2 (cVDPV2) (Borno and Sokoto states in 2016) continue to pose a risk to the neighbouring countries of the Lake Chad basin.
Emergency outbreak response efforts continue across the Lake Chad basin, together with activities to fill subnational surveillance gaps across the region.
These activities include efforts to vaccinate children at markets, in internally displaced persons camps, and at international borders.
Phase 3 of outbreak response is launching this month, taking into account the recommendations made during the November Outbreak Response Assessments for the countries and the Technical Advisory Group meeting in December. The objective is to maintain and improve the multinational, regional outbreak response across the Lake Chad basin region, in particular improving operations, reach and surveillance among hard-to-reach areas and populations.
Read the latest polio update from the Lake Chad Basin to see information on surveillance and vaccination campaigns.
Central Africa
No new cases of circulating vaccine-derived poliovirus type 2 (cVDPV2) were reported this week in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).
The most recent case (by date of onset) was reported in Ankoro district, Tanganyika province, with onset on 25 November 2017.
The total number of officially reported cVDPV2 cases in the DRC in 2017 remains 17. There are no cases reported in 2018.
Outbreak response continues to take place across the country, including use of monovalent oral polio vaccine type 2 (mOPV2) in line with internationally-agreed outbreak response protocols.
Children living in the districts where the latest cases were reported were last targeted with mOPV2 during December vaccination days.
Surveillance and immunization activities continue to be strengthened in neighbouring countries. Read the latest polio update from the DRC to see information on surveillance and vaccination campaigns.
Learn more about vaccine-derived polioviruses through this short animation.
The Middle East
No new cases of circulating vaccine derived poliovirus type 2 (cVDPV2) were reported this week.
The most recent case (by date of onset) was reported in Boukamal district, with onset on 21 September 2017.
The total number of officially reported cVDPV2 cases in Syria in 2017 remains 74. There are no cases reported in 2018.
The first round of the second phase of the outbreak response has been completed in all governorates (Deir Ez-Zor, Homs, Hasakah and Raqqa) with vaccination activities finishing on 21 January.
Administrative data has been received from all areas except eastern Deir Ez-Zor.
Post-campaign monitoring began on 21 January in all governorates.
Read the latest polio update from Syria to see information on cases, surveillance and vaccination campaigns.
Learn more about vaccine-derived polioviruses through this short animation.