Polio Update - August 2021

Pakistan is one of two countries where wild poliovirus remains endemic making it essential that the entire country supports the successful implementation of every polio campaign.

Women play a critical role, often working at polio’s frontline because health interventions and immunisation activities are most effective in Islamic societies when delivered by women. During each nationwide polio vaccination campaign in Pakistan, women make up around 62% of the 280,000 plus frontline workforce vaccinating millions of children across the country.

The success of the campaign is shown in the figures for 2021 for wild poliovirus detection in Pakistan, with only 1 case of acute flaccid paralysis at the end of January; and only 60 isolates from environmental sites with many weeks when no virus could be detected at all.

This is powerful evidence that there is now only very limited circulation of wild polio virus in communities in Pakistan, and adds authority to statements by WHO epidemiologists that wild poliovirus will have been eradicated by 2023, although 3 years will have to elapse before that is totally confirmed.