On 25 August, the Africa Regional Certification Commission certified the WHO African Region
as wild polio-free after four years without a case.
POLIO TODAY → POLIO NOW → THIS WEEK
This Week
Polio this week as of 26 August 2020
- On 25 August, the Africa Regional Certification Commission certified the WHO African Region as wild polio-free after four years without a case. With this historic milestone, five of the six WHO regions – representing over 90% of the world’s population – are now free of the wild poliovirus, moving the world closer to achieving global polio eradication. Read more…
- Following the certification of the WHO African Region as wild polio-free, Chair of the WHO’s International Health Regulations Emergency Committee and of the AFRO Regional Immunization Technical Advisory Group Helen Rees explains the current cVDPV situation in Africa and its implications.
- The Technical Advisory Group (TAG) on polio eradication is an independent body charged with advising and making recommendations to the ministry of health and Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI) partners on polio eradication programme policies, strategies and operations. The WHO has issued a call for nomination for experts to serve on the Technical Advisory Group on polio eradication in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
- Summary of new WPV and cVDPV viruses this week (AFP cases and ES positives):
- Afghanistan: two cVDPV2 cases and six cVDPV2 positive environmental samples
- Pakistan: 13 WPV1 positive environmental samples
- Benin: one cVDPV2 case
- Chad: one cVDPV2 case
- Democratic Republic of the Congo (DR Congo): two cVDPV2 cases
- Somalia: one cVDPV2 case
- Sudan: 11 cVDPV2 cases
See country sections below for more details.
Wild poliovirus type 1 and Circulating vaccine-derived poliovirus cases
| Total cases | Year-to-date 2020 | Year-to-date 2019 | Total in 2019 | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| WPV | cVDPV | WPV | cVDPV | WPV | cVDPV | |
| Globally | 104 | 303 | 84 | 113 | 174 | 368 |
| —In Endemic Countries | 104 | 108 | 84 | 18 | 174 | 40 |
| —In Non-Endemic Countries | 0 | 195 | 0 | 95 | 0 | 328 |
Case breakdown by country
| Countries | Year-to-date 2020 | Year-to-date 2019 | Total in 2019 | Onset of paralysis of most recent case | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| WPV | cVDPV | WPV | cVDPV | WPV | cVDPV | WPV | cVDPV | |
| Afghanistan | 37 | 54 | 17 | 0 | 29 | 0 | 20-Jul-2020 | 6-Jul-2020 |
| Angola | 0 | 3 | 0 | 31 | 0 | 130 | NA | 9-Feb-2020 |
| Benin | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 8 | NA | 16-Jan-2020 |
| Burkina Faso | 0 | 9 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | NA | 10-May-2020 |
| Cameroon | 0 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | NA | 11-Apr-2020 |
| Central African Republic | 0 | 1 | 0 | 9 | 0 | 21 | NA | 5-Feb-2020 |
| Chad | 0 | 56 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 11 | NA | 27-Jun-2020 |
| China | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | NA | 25-Apr-2019 |
| Democratic Republic Of The Congo | 0 | 23 | 0 | 35 | 0 | 88 | NA | 28-Apr-2020 |
| Ethiopia | 0 | 17 | 0 | 4 | 0 | 12 | NA | 13-Jun-2020 |
| Ghana | 0 | 11 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 18 | NA | 27-Apr-2020 |
| Guinea | 0 | 8 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | NA | 28-May-2020 |
| Myanmar | 0 | 0 | 0 | 6 | 0 | 6 | NA | 9-Aug-2019 |
| Niger | 0 | 4 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | NA | 15-Mar-2020 |
| Nigeria | 0 | 2 | 0 | 16 | 0 | 18 | NA | 18-Jun-2020 |
| Pakistan | 67 | 52 | 67 | 2 | 145 | 22 | 24-Jul-2020 | 11-Jun-2020 |
| Philippines | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 14 | NA | 15-Jan-2020 |
| Somalia | 0 | 2 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 3 | NA | 29-Jun-2020 |
| Togo | 0 | 9 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 8 | NA | 3-May-2020 |
| Zambia | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 2 | NA | 25-Nov-2019 |
NA: Onset of paralysis in most recent case is prior to 2017. Figures exclude non-AFP sources. In 2018, cVDPV includes all three serotypes 1, 2 and 3.
For Somalia: 1 cVDPV2 and cVDPV3 isolated from one AFP case.
cVDPV definition: see document “Reporting and classification of vaccine-derived polioviruses” at [pdf].
