Polio spread of international concern

The World Health Organization has declared the international spread of wild poliovirus in 2014 a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC). So far this year, there have been 68 cases of polio, compared to 24 in the same period last year. Pakistan has seen 54 cases, Nigeria 2, Afghanistan, Cameroon and Equatorial Guinea 3 cases each and Iraq, Syria and Ethiopia 1 case each. A WHO statement reads: “the Committee advised that the international spread of polio to date in 2014 constitutes and ‘extraordinary event’ and a public health risk to other States for which a coordinated international response is essential.” “The current situation stands in stark contrast to the near-cessation of international spread of wild polio from January 2012 through the 2013 low transmission season for this disease. If unchecked, this situation could result in failure to eradicate globally one of the world’s most serious vaccine preventable diseases.” The overriding priority for all polio-infected states must be to interrupt wild poliovirus transmission within their borders as rapidly as possible through immediate and full application of eradiation strategies, the statement continues. States currently transporting the disease should ensure that all residents and long-term visitors receive a dose of oral poliovirus vaccine (OPV) or inactivated poliovirus vaccine (IPV) between 4 and 12 weeks prior to international travel. This – amongst other criteria – must be maintained for at least 12 months have passed without the disease being exported out of the state, although the state will still be considered infected. Key facts (source WHO)

• Polio (poliomyelitis) mainly affects children under 5 years of age.
• One in 200 infections leads to irreversible paralysis. Among those paralysed, 5% to 10% die when their breathing muscles become immobilised.
• Polio cases have decreased by over 99% since 1988, from an estimated 350 000 cases then, to 406 reported cases in 2013.
• In 2014, only 3 countries (Afghanistan, Nigeria and Pakistan) remain polio-endemic, down from more than 125 in 1988.
• As long as a single child remains infected, children in all countries are at risk of contracting polio. Failure to eradicate polio from these last remaining strongholds could result in as many as 200 000 new cases every year, within 10 years, all over the world.
• In most countries, the global effort has expanded capacities to tackle other infectious diseases by building effective surveillance and immunisation systems.