POLIO [to 14 February 2015]
Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC)

GPEI Update: Polio this week – As of 11 February 2014
Global Polio Eradication Initiative
[Editor’s Excerpt and text bolding]
Full report: http://www.polioeradication.org/Dataandmonitoring/Poliothisweek.aspx

:: Nearly 230,000 children are to be vaccinated against polio during a 2-week campaign in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, which launched on 8 February. Health teams will visit homes, health centers, shopping malls, airports, seaports and other places where people gather to reach every child. More
:: In January, the Expert Review Committee on Polio Eradication and Immunization (ERC) met in Nigeria to review progress and challenges. Whilst 6 months have passed since the most recent case of wild poliovirus was confirmed, the ERC concluded that Nigeria has a long way to go before this tentative progress can be taken as evidence that transmission of the virus has stopped. The ERC emphasized the importance of guarding against complacency in Nigeria, maintaining political commitment to increasing immunity levels in all areas, coordinating across borders with neighbouring countries, and strengthening planning for the potential of new wild poliovirus cases.

Selected country report content:
Pakistan
:: Two new wild poliovirus type 1 (WPV1) cases were reported in the past week. One case was reported in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) province, in Peshawar district, the first case in this district to be reported in 2015; and the other in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA), in South Waziristan with onset of paralysis in 2014. The total number of WPV1 cases in 2014 is now 306, and 7 for 2015. The most recent onset of paralysis was on 17 January 2015 in Peshawar.
:: One case of type 2 circulating vaccine-derived poliovirus (cVDPV2) has been reported this week in the Khigadap district of Sindh province, with onset of paralysis on 13 December. The number of cVDPV cases reported in 2014 is now 21.

West Africa
:: Even as polio programme staff across West Africa help 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 affected countries. The Ebola crisis in western Africa continues to have an impact on the implementation of polio eradication activities in Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone. Twenty two experts from the National Polio Surveillance Programme (NPSP) in India have been deployed for 3 months to strengthen surveillance systems and data collection for the Ebola response, demonstrating the polio legacy in action.