Update: Polio this week – As of 18 December 2013 [last update published]
Global Polio Eradication Initiative
Full report: http://www.polioeradication.org/Dataandmonitoring/Poliothisweek.aspx
[Editor’s extract and bolded text]

As the year 2013 draws to a close, the GPEI takes stock:
:: In Afghanistan, no indigenous cases of wild poliovirus have occurred all year – all cases are linked to cross-border transmission with neighbouring Pakistan.
:: In Nigeria, poliovirus is increasingly geographically restricted – primarily to Kanod and Borno states. Over the past 4 months, only four cases have occurred in the country, despite the onset of the rainy season (the “high season” for polio transmission).
:: The Horn of Africa outbreak is on the decline, including in Banadir, Somalia, the “engine” of the outbreak (no cases since July).
:: A cross-regional emergency approach is being implemented in the Middle East.
:: In Pakistan, the main reservoir area is Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA), in particular North Waziristan.  During the ‘high season’ in the past four months, 52 cases of wild poliovirus have been reported from FATA, with evidence of widespread geographic transmission across the country.  Areas within Pakistan are being re-infected, as is neighbouring Afghanistan, and the outbreak in the Middle East originated in Pakistan.
:: The overriding operational priority for the GPEI is to ensure all children are reached during supplementary immunization activities during the 2014 ‘low season’ for polio transmission.
Pakistan
:: One new WPV1 case was reported in the past week from North Waziristan, FATA. The total number of WPV1 cases for Pakistan in 2013 is now 75. The most recent WPV1 case had onset of paralysis on 26 November (from North Waziristan, FATA).
:: North Waziristan is the area with the largest number of children being paralyzed by poliovirus in Pakistan. Immunization activities have been suspended by local leaders since June 2012. It is critical that children in all areas are vaccinated and protected from poliovirus. Immunizations in neighbouring high-risk areas are being intensified, to further boost population immunity levels in those areas and prevent further spread of this outbreak.

UNICEF proposal: Anti-polio media to become more Pakhtun-centric
The Express Tribune (Pakistan) (1/2)
ISLAMABAD:
The Pakhtun-dominated areas pose the biggest challenge to polio eradication efforts in Pakistan and to counter it the government, along with its international partners, has planned to devise a localised communication strategy.

“There will be a strategic shift in 2014 to integrate Pakhtun social norms in to all components of communication strategy with a focus on reaching key tribes,” said a UNICEF report.

The UNICEF disclosed the revised communication plan in a presentation given to the Prime Minister’s Focal Person on Polio Eradication Ayesha Raza Farooq.

The Extended Programme on Immunization (EPI) National Programme Manager Dr Rana Muhammad Safdar, who is also coordinator for the PM polio cell said it remained a fact that the polio teams faced various issues to vaccinate children in Pakhtun-dominated areas across Pakistan.

“In Peshawar alone there are 50 high-risk areas in terms of security where the polio teams cannot go,” Dr Safdar said.

According to the copy of Unicef presentation available with The Express Tribune, the plan would include amplifying Pakhtun voices in national media discourse and minimise Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI) voices.

Unicef suggested re-profiling the vaccinators and frontline workers as protectors of children among others…

Vaccination supervisor killed, 2 workers injured in attack at Pakistan hospital
The New York Times (tiered subscription model) (12/28)
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — A health worker supervising a polio vaccination campaign was fatally shot and two others were wounded on Saturday when gunmen opened fire at a hospital in northwestern Pakistan, officials said.

No one immediately took responsibility for the killing, but the Taliban, which accuses the United States of using a drive to eradicate polio in the country as a cover for spying, has threatened the lives of health workers who immunize children.

Pakistani officials said two gunmen riding a motorbike had opened fire at a government hospital in Matni, a suburb of Peshawar, the provincial capital of the restive Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Province. Zahid Gul, who was overseeing the vaccination campaign, was killed and another man and a woman were wounded in the attack. The gunmen fled.

Saturday’s episode was a particular setback to the former cricket star and current opposition leader Imran Khan, whose political party controls Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa….