POLIO [to 21 February 2015]
Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC)

GPEI Update: Polio this week – As of 18 February 2014
Global Polio Eradication Initiative
[Editor’s Excerpt and text bolding]
Full report: http://www.polioeradication.org/Dataandmonitoring/Poliothisweek.aspx
:: The fourth meeting of the International Health Regulations Emergency Committee concerning the international spread of wild poliovirus is convening this week. Outcomes and the Committee’s final report will be made available on http://www.polioeradication.org.
:: It has been six months since the most recent case of wild poliovirus on the African continent had onset of paralysis, in Somalia on 11 August. Twelve months of absence of wild poliovirus, with certification-quality surveillance, will be necessary for the Horn of Africa outbreak to be declared as closed.
Selected country report content:
Afghanistan
:: On 15 – 17 February in most areas and 22 – 24 February in the south, Subnational Immunization Days (SNIDs) will take place across the entire south and east of the country, using bivalent OPV. The next National Immunization Days (NIDs) are planned for 15 – 17 March using trivalent OPV in most areas, and inactivated polio vaccine (IPV) combined with bivalent OPV in some areas of Hilmand, Kandahar and Nangarhar.

Four kidnapped polio workers are found dead in Pakistan
BBC News | 17 February 2015
Four members of a polio vaccination team have been found shot dead in south-west Pakistan, four days after being abducted.
Police said that the bodies of a health worker, his driver and two security guards were found in the region of Balochistan.
The team were seized on Friday by Taliban militants, security officials said.
Militants say polio teams are spies or that the vaccine causes infertility…