POLIO [to 7 January 2017]
Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC)

Polio this week as of 4 January 2017
:: Summary of newly-reported viruses this week (see country-specific sections below for further details): Pakistan:  three positive environmental samples (wild poliovirus type 1 – WPV1)

:: New this week: new webinars on outbreak response – check the last item in Resources for Polio Eradicators to learn about outbreak response protocols, cold chain logistics, and evaluating communications in outbreaks, among others. These webinars complement the guidelines and protocols developed by GPEI partners.

Country Updates [Selected Excerpts]
Pakistan
:: Three WPV1-positive environmental samples were reported in the past week from Quetta, Balochistan, collected on 12 December; Rawalpindi, Punjab, collected on 10 December; and Peshawar, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), collected on 10 December.
:: An outbreak response activity using monovalent oral polio vaccine type 2 (mOPV2) is being implemented this week in Quetta, in response to a confirmed circulating vaccine-derived poliovirus type 2 (cVDPV2) in the area, in line with internationally-agreed outbreak response protocols.  The Ministry of Health, supported by the World Health Organization (WHO) and partners, is further strengthening active search for cases of acute flaccid paralysis (AFP), and conducting an in-depth field investigation to more clearly ascertain the extent of circulation of the cVDPV2.

Pakistani city launches new polio campaign after rare strain found
Reuters By Gul Yousafzai |
2 January 2017 QUETTA, Pakistan
Pakistan began a special five-day polio immunisation campaign in the southwestern city of Quetta on Monday for children under five after a rare strain of the virus was found in sewage samples, officials said.
Local officials said they had recruited Muslim clerics to promote the immunisations for 400,000 children after past programmes were met with resistance and even violence by extremists.
“The religious leaders were … asking the people to give their children anti-polio drops in their sermons in the mosques in rural areas of Baluchistan,” said Syed Faisal Ahmed, coordinator of the local Emergency Operation Centre.
Pakistan is one of just three countries in the world, along with Afghanistan and Nigeria, that have endemic polio, a once-common childhood virus that can cause paralysis or death.
Last year, Pakistan reported a record low of 19 cases, Ahmed said, with only one of them in Baluchistan province, of which Quetta is the capital.
The new campaign follows the detection of the rare Type 2 strain of polio in sewage samples taken by the World Health Organization in November, Ahmed said. The WHO reported the findings last week.
No cases of the Type 2 strain have been reported in humans in Quetta but it has been added to the vaccine as a precaution. The more common type of polio is Type 1, with no human cases of Type 2 reported for more than a decade.
“We have achieved major goals in combating polio disease, but still we have to strive more to declare Pakistan a polio-free country,” Ahmed said…

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