POLIO [to 17 January 2015]
Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC)

GPEI Update: Polio this week – As of 14 January 2014
Global Polio Eradication Initiative
[Editor’s Excerpt and text bolding]
Full report: http://www.polioeradication.org/Dataandmonitoring/Poliothisweek.aspx
:: More than 6 months have passed since the most recent case of wild poliovirus in central Africa was detected in Cameroon on the 9 July 2014. This indicates that progress towards stopping the outbreak in this region is being made. However, outbreak response activities must continue and subnational surveillance systems strengthened to ensure the rapid detection of any residual transmission.
:: More than a year has passed since the last case of wild poliovirus in Ethiopia. With the most recent wild poliovirus case in the Horn of Africa detected in August 2014 in Somalia, outbreak response across the region is continuing.
:: No new cases of wild poliovirus have been reported anywhere in the world this week.

Selected country report content:
West Africa
:: The Ebola crisis in western Africa continues to have an impact on the implementation of polio eradication activities in Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone. Supplementary immunization activities (SIAs) in these countries have been postponed and the quality of acute flaccid paralysis surveillance has markedly decreased throughout 2014. National Immunization Days (NIDs) have been rescheduled for Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone from the 27 to 31 March. 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 to create a buffer zone surrounding the Ebola-affected countries.
:: NIDs are planned using bivalent oral polio vaccine (OPV) in Niger and Benin on 27 February to 2 March, and Subnational Immunization Days (SNIDs) tentatively in Mali in February with dates to be confirmed. From the 27 to 31 March, NIDs will take place in Benin, Burkina Faso, Cote d’Ivoire, Mali, Niger and Senegal using trivalent OPV.