Three years since no wild poliovirus type 3: the 10th of November is an opportunity to mark three years with no child paralysed by wild poliovirus type 3 (WPV3); a reminder of the role of surveillance in ensuring the world is polio free, and of innovations in driving the programme forward. For more, please click here.
Following its meeting in October, the Independent Monitoring Board (IMB) published its latest report evaluating the current status of polio eradication. The report is available here.
This week, the Emergency Committee of the International Health Regulations (IHR) is meeting by teleconference, to determine whether the current epidemiology continues to represent a public health emergency of international concern, and whether to maintain the temporary recommendations associated with it for a further three months. The Committee’s report is expected to be published by early next week.
The Global Commission for the Certification of Poliomyelitis Eradication (GCC) published an editorial in Science magazine, on the importance of ensuring global containment of type 2 polioviruses, following the group’s declaration in September that wild poliovirus type 2 has been globally eradicated. The containment of type 2 polioviruses is particularly critical, in the lead-up to the switch from trivalent OPV to bivalent OPV in April 2016. The editorial is available here.