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Polio Eradication Initiative
50 years of impact: how EPI and efforts to end polio show what is humanly possible through collaboration
By Dr Hamid Jafari, Director, Polio Eradication, WHO Eastern Mediterranean Region Photo credit: WHO Pakistan28 April 2024 – Each year at the end of April, the global community commemorates World Immunization Week, a milestone that reminds us of what humanity can achieve when we come together and take action for our collective health. Given that...
Health ministers convene in pivotal year for polio eradication at the 10th meeting of the Regional Subcommittee on Polio Eradication and Outbreaks
Credit: WHO/WHO Pakistan 26 March 2024 – To strengthen the fight against polio, health ministers from across the WHO Eastern Mediterranean Region gathered virtually for the 10th meeting of the Regional Subcommittee on Polio Eradication and Outbreaks. It was the first meeting of the Subcommittee convened by the new WHO Regional Director for the...
Investments in women: investments in health
7 March 2024 – Women play central, diverse and multifaceted roles in safeguarding children from polio, proving that investments in women’s capacities and skills translate into investments in strengthening health systems. The stories below highlight some ways in which women are breaking barriers, driving change and inching us closer to a...
“I don’t want children to be affected by poliovirus like I was”
5 March 2024 – My name is Farid, and I am 35 years old. I live in the Bati Kot district of Nangarhar province, Afghanistan. I contracted polio when I was 3 years old. The symptoms started with a fever, then a weakness in my left leg and in my left hand. While strength eventually returned to my hand, my leg remained weak. My parents took me to the...
Sustaining polio investments offers a high return
A child receives routine immunizations in Mogadishu, Somalia, August 2023. Photo credit: WHO/I. Taxta14 February 2024 – A new investment case shows that successful polio transition in the 8 priority countries of the WHO Eastern Mediterranean Region will have a very high return on investment. Economic and social benefits totalling an estimated...
Extraordinary chains of coordination to detect poliovirus amidst Sudan’s conflict
Dr Abdellatif Abdelwahab, Public Health Officer of White Nile State (left), collecting stool samples from Sennar State on his way to Gezira State. WHO/Sudan23 July 2023 – At the earliest signs of the ongoing conflict in Sudan, in the middle of April, WHO’s country team sprang into action. After all, conflict and infectious diseases are known to...
Contributing to a lasting legacy: the ‘father’ of polio laboratories in the Eastern Mediterranean Region
Dr Humayun Asghar21 June 2023 – The vast machinery of the global polio eradication programme is much like the inner workings of a clock – a network of interconnected people, organizations and programmes that together are more powerful than the sum of their parts. Collaboration is foundational to eradication, and every eradicator plays a part in edging the...
Polio: As of today, the world’s only Public Health Emergency of International Concern
Credit: WHO/M. Al-Azraqi 21 May 2023 – In May 2014, the WHO Director-General declared the international spread of poliovirus a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC) under the International Health Regulations (IHR 2005), a designation that allows for accelerated response, emergency disbursement of funding and mitigation...
WHO’s polio programme provides vital support to nationwide measles vaccination in Afghanistan
WHO Representative in Afghanistan Dr Luo Dapeng vaccinating children against measles in a mobile clinic in Baba Wali village of Kandahar province. With more than 20 years’ experience on the ground in Afghanistan, WHO’s polio eradication programme continues to leverage its extensive operational capacity to deliver better health outcomes for all...
Eastern Mediterranean health leaders call for redoubled efforts for a defining year for polio
Credit: WHO/Pakistan 9 March 2023 – On Tuesday 28 February 2023, ministers and high-level delegates from across the Eastern Mediterranean Region participated in the seventh meeting of the Regional Subcommittee for Polio Eradication and Outbreaks. The meeting came at a time of contrasts for polio eradication efforts. On the one hand, the Region’s...
