An Afghan child displays her finger, seen stained with ink, as a mark of having been administered the polio vaccine during the first day of a polio vaccination campaign in Bamyan on October 17, 2016. WHO Afghanistan/R.Akbar 23 October 2017 – With fewer cases than in any other year in history, the world has its best opportunity yet to end polio for...

26 April 2017 – At the heart of the polio eradication effort are thousands of individuals working to reach every last child with vaccines and find every last virus through the polio surveillance system. As part of World Immunization Week, new polio-themed animated videos are being launched focusing on the Polio Surveillance System and Reaching...

19 February 2016 – Surveillance officers, Expanded Programme on Immunization (EPI) managers, EPI and outbreak response teams and data managers from Qatar’s Ministry of Public Health gathered for a 4-day workshop in Doha between 30 January and 2 February 2017 to review the national polio outbreak preparedness and response plan as part of the global...

13 December 2016 – Surveillance officers and data managers from ministries of health of  the 6 member countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) gathered for a 3-day workshop in Bahrain from 12 to 14 December 2016 to build their capacity on risk assessment associated with population movements and mapping high-risk groups and locations. They...

Muslim leaders look to expand group’s role 5 August 2016 – The Islamic Advisory Group for Polio Eradication (IAG) adopted a new work-plan last week to help in the final push to end polio in the last 2 Muslim countries where the virus remains in circulation – Afghanistan and Pakistan. The announcement came at the conclusion of the third annual IAG...

During the 69th World Health Assembly in Geneva global leaders have reaffirmed commitment to ending polio once and for all Last week, global political commitment to eradicating polio was affirmed at the World Health Assembly (WHA) in Geneva. During the polio agenda item, member states discussed progress made in the last year and the remaining...

3 May 2016 – A second 4-day workshop to build country capacity to respond to any possible polio outbreak was organized by the WHO Regional Office for the Eastern Mediterranean from 24 to 27 April 2016 in Cairo, Egypt. Representatives from ministries of health of the 10 countries of the Region which did not take part in the first workshop...

This World Immunization Week, the global goal of polio eradication is closer than ever, although more needs to be done to deliver a world free from the disease.   To deliver a polio-free world, every child in the remaining polio reservoirs – Pakistan and Afghanistan – must be vaccinated. The purple ink dot on this babies’ finger shows that they have...

1 March 2016 – The eighth meeting of the Emergency Committee under the International Health Regulations (2005) (IHR) regarding the international spread of poliovirus was convened via teleconference by the Director-General on 12 February 2016. As with the seventh meeting, the Emergency Committee reviewed the data on circulating wild poliovirus as...

Dr Naeema Al Gasseer, WHO Representative to Sudan, giving a dose of vitamin A to a child during the polio campaign in Sudan from 2 to 4 November 20158 November 2015 – More than 4 million children under the age of 5 have been targeted with oral polio vaccine during a 3-day national immunization day campaign in Sudan. The campaign, which was...