Update: Polio this week – As of 05 Sep 2012
Global Polio Eradication Initiative

–          The outbreak in Katsina, northern Nigeria, is continuing, with four new wild poliovirus (WPV) type 1 cases reported this week. Katsina has reported 16 cases of WPV1 since May, more than any other state in the country. Katsina now accounts for 40% of all WPV1 cases in Nigeria since May. Upwards of one-third of children remain under-immunized in the state. During the most recent supplementary immunization activity (SIA), nearly one-third of children were missed in Katsina city (the most populous part of the state and location of the bulk of cases).

–          The Strategic Advisory Group of Experts on immunization (SAGE) Polio Working Group met this week in Geneva, Switzerland. Among other topics, the SAGE Polio Working Group discussed concrete ways to more effectively manage the short- and long-term implications of vaccine-derived polioviruses (VDPVs), including a potential switch from trivalent oral polio vaccine (OPV) to bivalent OPV even before the interruption of the remaining strains of WPV type 1 and WPV type 3. This approach had previously been endorsed in principle by SAGE. In May, the World Health Assembly (WHA) had requested the development of a comprehensive polio eradication and endgame strategy, to feature the potential timing of such a switch. The outcomes of the discussions from the SAGE Polio Working Group, and with continued guidance from SAGE and the WHA, will help inform a comprehensive Polio Eradication and Endgame Strategy 2014-2018.

http://www.polioeradication.org/Dataandmonitoring/Poliothisweek.aspx