GPEI Update: Polio this week – As of 12 March 2014
Global Polio Eradication Initiative
Full report: http://www.polioeradication.org/Dataandmonitoring/Poliothisweek.aspx
[Editor’s extract and bolded text]
:: In Cameroon, two new wild poliovirus type 1 (WPV1) cases are reported this week, from 2014. The new cases confirm continued transmission of this strain and geographic expansion of infected areas following detection of four cases in October.
:: Newsweek Pakistan published an in-depth interview with Dr Hamid Jafari, WHO, about the current situation of polio eradication in Pakistan. The interview can be accessed here.

Pakistan
:: Three new WPV1 cases were reported in the past week, all from Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA – two from North Waziristan and one from South Waziristan). The total number of cases for 2014 is now 27. The total number of cases for 2013 remains 93. The most recent case had onset of paralysis on 15 February 2014 (one of the two WPV1s reported this week from North Waziristan).

Central Africa
:: In Cameroon, two new WPV1 cases were reported in the past week, with onset of paralysis on 6 and 25 January 2014, confirming continued WPV1 transmission and geographic expansion of infected areas following detection of four cases in October.
:: Genetic sequencing suggests prolonged undetected circulation.
:: Since confirmation of the outbreak in October, three nationwide campaigns have been conducted, and a fourth is currently underway. However, quality varies greatly by region, and serious gaps remain. As many as 40% of children remain under-immunized (with 30% having received zero doses).
:: The confirmation of new cases has resulted in planning additional emergency outbreak response activities, including converting a subnational immunization campaign to a full nationwide activity in April 2014, and implementing nationwide campaigns in May and June 2014. Critical to success will be to ensure substantial improvement in the quality campaigns that reach all children multiple times with OPV. Equally important will be efforts to rapidly improve the quality of surveillance so that the full extent of the outbreak can be determined and tracked.

2 killed in latest attack on Pakistan polio workers
Agence France Presse
Published — Tuesday 11 March 2014
PESHAWAR, Pakistan: Two policemen guarding a polio vaccination team in northwest Pakistan were shot dead by armed men on Tuesday, police said, the latest setback to efforts to eradicate the crippling disease.
Militant strikes and threats of violence have badly hampered a campaign to stamp out polio in Pakistan, which along with Nigeria and Afghanistan are the only countries where the disease remains endemic.
Tuesday’s attack took place in the village of Gandi Umar Khan, about 20 km west of the nearest city of Dera Ismail Khan, on the second day of an innoculation drive, senior police official Sadiq Baluch said.
Nisar Khan Marwat, another police officer, confirmed the attack, adding: “Two police officials were accompanying two local polio workers when four gunmen riding on two motorbikes shot at them.”…

Roadside bomb kills 3 polio vaccinators in Afghanistan
ANS
Kabul, March 11: A roadside bomb planted by militants struck a vehicle, killing three polio vaccinators in Afghanistan Tuesday, an official said.
“The vaccinators were going to a village in Sangin district (in Helmand province) at midday today to give polio drops to children when their car ran over a mine. As a result, all three were killed,” Omar Zawak, spokesman of the Helmand provincial government, told Xinhua…

Pakistan to pay parents in new polio vaccination drive
Parents in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province to get 1,000 rupees for each child who completes vaccinations after Peshawar declared largest reservoir of endemic polio
Jon Boone in Peshawar
theguardian.com, Monday 10 March 2014 08.45 EDT
Parents in one of Pakistan‘s most troubled provinces are to be paid to vaccinate their children against polio, the crippling disease the world is tantalisingly close to eradicating.

It is hoped some 2 million children from some of the most disadvantaged areas of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), the north-western province wracked by Taliban violence, will benefit from the scheme.

Parents will be entitled to claim 1,000 rupees (almost £6) for each newborn child who completes a 15-month programme of vaccinations that will protect them against a number of diseases including measles, hepatitis and polio.

It is the first time the country has resorted to monetary incentives, which are rarely used around the world.

Public health officials battling childhood diseases face immense challenges in KP, where militant attacks are a daily routine, poverty is entrenched and many people are deeply suspicious of programmes enthusiastically backed by western powers.

“It has to be a good amount of money to be attractive, even in the very poorest districts of the province,” said Janbaz Afridi, deputy director of the province’s expanded programme on immunisation. “If it is a success we will extend it to every child in the province.”…