Following the passing of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, the GPEI paid tribute to Her leadership, steadfastness and commitment to service and recognized His Royal Highness King Charles III’s support for polio eradication. For the last two decades, the prospect of sending 16 visiting polio experts out across the provinces of Afghanistan would have been impossible but from 6 to 19 June 2022, WHO Afghanistan’s polio eradication programme did just that. Their mission? To review the country’s polio surveillance system, assess its functionality at all levels and make specific recommendations for maintaining and improving surveillance quality.For the last two decades, the prospect of sending 16 visiting polio experts out across the provinces of Afghanistan would have been impossible but from 6 to 19 June 2022, WHO Afghanistan’s polio eradication programme did just that. Their mission? To review the country’s polio surveillance system, assess its functionality at all levels and make specific recommendations for maintaining and improving surveillance quality. The review determined that Afghanistan’s surveillance system is achieving all sensitivity targets and the likelihood of undetected poliovirus transmission is low. Recommendations, including upscaling surveillance in the country’s south and south east, are currently being implemented. “After many visits to Afghanistan, this was the first time we were able to visit every place we needed to review,” said Dr Jean-Marc Olive, Surveillance Review Team Leader. “This gave me great confidence that this extensive effort was a thorough country review which clearly identified both the achievements and the remaining challenges to ensure that no WPV will be missed.” - Summary of new polioviruses this week:
- Afghanistan: one WPV1 case [Wild poliovirus] - Pakistan: two WPV1 cases and one positive environmental sample - Mozambique : one WPV1 case - Benin: two cVDPV2 cases and one positive environmental sample [Vaccine derived poliovirus]. - DR Congo: one cVDPV2 case - Ghana: one cVDPV2 positive environmental sample - Madagascar: one cVDPV1 positive environmental sample - Malawi: two cVDPV1 cases - Nigeria : one cVDPV2 positive environmental sample See country sections below for more details. |