War on Polio

The War on Polio

No one is safe from Polio, until everyone is safe from Polio

When Rotary launched the PolioPlus program in 1985, polio infected an estimated 350,000 children in 125 countries, annually.

Today, the Global Polio Eradication Initiative, led by Rotary International and its partners at the World Health Organization, US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and UNICEF, has reduced polio cases worldwide by over 99 percent with 1,997 cases reported in 2006. Today, for the first time in history there but four polio-endemic countries - Nigeria, India, Pakistan, Niger, and Afghanistan - and five countries where transmission was recently re-established: the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Angola, Myanmar, Chad, and Somalia.

You and the people you care about are just hours away from the contagious polio virus, thanks to modern air travel. Help fight the war on polio by contributing to the Rotary Foundation.

No one is safe from polio until the disease is completely eradicated from among the poorest and least developed regions of our world.

Accomplishments in 2006

Although the War on Polio has been protracted, there have been positive results every year. Donations to the cause produced the following major accomplishments in 2006:

In January, Egypt and Niger were officially removed from the endemic country list, reducing the number of countries to never have interrupted endemic transmission of polio to a historic low of four (Nigeria, India, Pakistan and Afghanistan).

In February, epidemics in Yemen and Indonesia - which suffered the largest, single-country outbreaks in recent years - were successfully stopped.

In June, an outbreak in Namibia was stopped within 50 days, by following new international outbreak response guidelines adopted by the World Health Assembly (WHA) just one month earlier.

In July, the Global Polio Laboratory network launched new procedures to halve poliovirus confirmation time.

In August, an outbreak of type 1 polio in Uttar Pradesh, India, peaked, as new cases began to significantly decline.

In October, the Advisory Committee on Polio Eradication (ACPE) re-affirmed the technical feasibility of polio eradication at its annual meeting in Geneva.

In December, tailored new approaches were adopted in the remaining endemic countries to raise immunity levels among children in the endemic areas to the necessary levels to rapidly interrupt transmission of the virus.

Map depicting recent Polio outbreaks

Medical authorities track progress of the polio eradication effort by counting the number and location of new cases as they arise throughout each year. Knowing where the disease is active helps target immunization campaigns and helps prevent the spread of polio beyond afflicted regions. The below map depicts the geographic cases and types of polio virus remaining active.

Recent Trends in Fighting Polio: A Significant Reduction in New Cases in 2007

These tables provide information on recent trends in the fight against polio.

Total cases	Year-to-date 2007	Year-to-date 2006	Total in 2006
Globally	497	1253	1997
- in endemic countries:	433	1153	1869
- in non-endemic countries:	64	100	128

Case breakdown by country

Country	Cases Year-to-date 2007	Total in 2006	Date of onset of most recent case
India	223	676	24 August 2007
Pakistan	13	40	7 August 2007
Nigeria	188	1122	6 August 2007
Chad	5	1	2 August 2007
Afghanistan	9	31	1 August 2007
DRC	28	13	19 July 2007
Angola	10	2	8 July 2007
Myanmar	11	0	28 May 2007
Niger	2	11	23 May 2007
Somalia	8	35	25 March 2007
Nepal	0	5	22 December 2006
Cameroon	0	2	6 December 2006
Bangladesh	0	18	22 November 2006
Kenya	0	2	13 November 2006
Ethiopia	0	17	7 November 2006
Namibia	0	19	26 June 2006
Indonesia	0	2	20 February 2006
Yemen	0	1	2 February 2006

Headlines

In India, seven cases of WPV3 are reported from Bihar, the first WPV3 in the state since 2004. See 'India' section for further details.

Endemic countries

Afghanistan

No new cases have been reported in the past week. The case count for 2007 remains 9 cases, with onset of paralysis of the most recent case on 1 August.
A polio campaign with mOPV3 is currently being conducted in the Southern Region (19-21 September). mOPV1 will be used in the Eastern Region on 24-26 September.
On 1-2 October, a technical consultation on polio eradication in Afghanistan and Pakistan will convene in Oman.

India

23 new cases were reported in the past week (five WPV1s and 18 WPV3s), bringing the total to 223 cases for 2007. The most recent case had onset of paralysis on 24 August.
Among the newly reported cases is a type 1 from Maharashtra state (Thane district, a suburb of Mumbai - the first polio there since November 2006), as well as seven WPV3s from Bihar state. They are the first WPV3s in Bihar since January 2004.
While genetic sequencing of these WPV3s is ongoing, it ijs likely that they are related to WPV3 circulating in western Uttar Pradesh. In response, a monovalent OPV type 3 (mOPV3) campaign will be held in Bihar and western Uttar Pradesh at the end of September.
Strategic contingency plans had already been put in place for potential re-infection with WPV3, and this has ensured that a sufficient supply of mOPV3 is already available in Bihar.

Nigeria

2 new cases (one WPV1 and one WPV3) were reported in the past week, bringing the total to 188 cases for 2007. The most recent case had onset of paralysis on 6 August.
Independent monitoring from the Immunization Plus Days (IPDs) held on 1-4 September with trivalent oral polio vaccine (OPV) indicates the highest achieved coverage of all 2007 IPDs. However, gaps in coverage remain, in particular in the highest-risk states.
The next IPDs will be held on 17-20 November.
The next Expert Review Committee on Polio Eradication (ERC) is scheduled for 23-24 October, in Abuja.

Pakistan

1 new case was reported in the past week (WPV1), bringing the total to 13 cases in 2007. The most recent case had onset of paralysis on 7 August.
The case is from Thatta district, bordering Karachi, in Sindh.
On 24-26 September, mOPV3 will be used during a campaign in Balochistan and northern Sindh, while mOPV1 will be administered in North West Frontier Province (NWFP).

Re-infected countries

In Niger, advance notification of a new case (WPV1) was received from Zinder province. The case had onset of paralysis on 16 August. Niger's most recent SIAs were held on 3 September, and the next round will be conducted on 10 October.
In 2007, all of Niger's cases are linked to polioviruses circulating in northern Nigeria. The country continues to be at particular risk of repeated, individual importations from northern Nigeria.

Web Links about the War on Polio