POLIO [to 3 January 2014]
Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC)

GPEI Update: Polio this week – As of 24 December 2014
Global Polio Eradication Initiative
[Editor’s Excerpt and text bolding]
Full report: http://www.polioeradication.org/Dataandmonitoring/Poliothisweek.aspx
:: The year ends with real – and fragile – progress: the longest stretch in history without wild poliovirus in Africa, large outbreaks stopped in the Middle East and the Horn of Africa, a certified polio-free South East Asia and no wild poliovirus type 3 for over 2 years. This will be the last weekly update of 2014.
:: Polio eradication efforts in 2015 will have five priorities: refining surveillance to catch any remaining virus, keeping Africa and the Middle East polio-free, providing a surge of support to Pakistan and Afghanistan, preparing for the withdrawal of oral polio vaccine type 2 and continuing to demonstrate and build on the differences that the polio programme makes to routine immunization programmes.

Selected country report content:
Afghanistan
:: One new wild poliovirus type 1 (WPV1) case was reported in the past week in Afghanistan, in Spin Boldak, a district in Kandahar province. This most recent case had onset of paralysis on 26 November. The total number of WPV1 cases for 2014 in Afghanistan is now 26 compared to 11 at this time last year.
:: Subnational Immunization Days (SNIDs) took place in high risk areas of the south and east using monovalent oral polio vaccine (OPV) type 1 on 21 – 23 December. The next rounds are planned for 11 – 13 January using bivalent OPV.
Pakistan
:: Eight new wild poliovirus type 1 (WPV1) cases were reported in the past week. Four are from Balochistan, where districts of Nasirabad and Pishin are newly infected; 2 from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) province (Peshawar and newly-infected Kohat); 2 from Sindh (Sanghar and newly-infected Larakana). The total number of WPV1 cases in Pakistan in 2014 is now 291, compared to 77 at this time last year. The most recent WPV1 cases had onset of paralysis on 4 December, in Sindh and Balochistan.
:: Immunization activities are continuing with particular focus on known high-risk areas, in previously inaccessible areas of FATA. At exit and entry points of conflict-affected areas 100 permanent vaccination points are being used to reach internally displaced families as they move in and out of the inaccessible area.
West Africa
:: The Ebola crisis in western Africa continues to have an impact on the implementation or polio eradication activities in Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone. Supplementary immunization activities in these countries have been postponed and the quality of acute flaccid paralysis surveillance has markedly decreased this year. The programme continues to monitor the situation with concern.
:: Even as polio programme staff across West Africa support efforts to control the Ebola outbreak affecting the region, efforts are being made in those countries not affected by Ebola to vaccinate children against polio.
:: Subnational Immunization Days (SNIDs) are planned in Niger and tentatively for Mali in January.

Pakistan anti-polio drive halted
Zeenews | 22 December 2014
Islamabad: Pakistan’s anti-polio drive has been halted for security reasons in Khyber-Pakhtunkwa province where over 2.9 million children were expected to be administered the polio vaccine during the three-day campaign, media reported. Earlier Monday morning, the campaign was launched and over 8,000 teams were constituted to administer anti-polio drops to about 2.9 million children. Arrangements were also made to administer the vaccine to children at bus stops and railway stations. On Monday, two more polio cases were confirmed by the Polio Virology Laboratory (PVG) at the National Institute of Health in Islamabad.