8 March 2026 – In July 2024, amid ongoing conflict and widespread displacement in the Gaza Strip, variant poliovirus – with links to poliovirus found in Egypt – was detected in wastewater in Khan Younis and Deir al Balah for the first time in more than 25 years. Poliovirus was then confirmed in a 10-month-old child in Gaza who had never received any...

12 January 2026  –  In 2025, WHO’s polio programme in the Eastern Mediterranean Region advanced critical areas of eradication despite conflict, humanitarian crisis and funding pressures. From refining strategies in endemic countries to expanding laboratory capacity and political engagement and accelerating integration with routine immunization, the year...

Inauguration of the modular environmental surveillance lab, Muscat, Oman. Photo credit: WHO/Oman2 December 2025, Muscat, Oman– In the effort to end polio, the last mile is the hardest. As long as the virus continues to find refuge in fragile health systems and conflict zones, it will continue to threaten children well beyond the borders of the...

28 May 2025, Brazzaville/Amman/Geneva – For nearly a decade, the Horn of Africa has battled persistent outbreaks of variant poliovirus. The spread has been fueled by low immunity in children, unmonitored population movements, lack of access to children living in insecure areas, variable levels of national ownership of polio eradication efforts across countries,...

Regional leaders call for intensified support to stop wild poliovirus transmission in Afghanistan and Pakistan 28 April 2025 – Health ministers from across the Eastern Mediterranean Region and Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI) partners convened virtually on 27 April for the 13th meeting of the Regional Subcommittee for Polio Eradication...

Joint statement by WHO and UNICEF 1 November 2024, A third phase of the polio vaccination campaign is set to begin tomorrow in part of the northern Gaza Strip after being postponed from 23 October 2024 due to lack of access and assured, comprehensive humanitarian pauses, intense bombardment, and mass evacuation orders. These conditions made it...

26 July 2024, Cairo, Egypt - Health ministers from across the Eastern Mediterranean Region have united to address the polio emergency in the occupied Palestinian territory. The urgent need for coordinated, collective regional action to combat circulating variant poliovirus type 2 (cVDPV2) in the Gaza Strip was the focus of the 11th meeting of the...

10 June 2024 – When a 5.9-magnitude earthquake struck south-eastern Afghanistan in the early hours of 22 June 2022, WHO’s polio workers were among the first responders. As dawn broke in Khost and Paktika provinces, and the extent of the devastation became evident, they helped attend to the many injured. WHO’s polio teams dressed wounds, provided...

To deliver a Polio-free world, the TAG recommends urgent efforts in Afghanistan and Pakistan Members of the Technical Advisory Group deliberate on the necessary actions to end transmission of wild poliovirus in Afghanistan and Pakistan during discussions in Doha, Qatar, in May 2024.3 June 2024, Doha, Qatar – The meeting of the Technical Advisory...

From May 19–21, 2024, the State of Qatar hosted the 38th meeting of the WHO’s Eastern Mediterranean Regional Commission for Certification of Poliomyelitis Eradication (RCC). The RCC is the regional body that reviews and verifies each country’s progress towards maintaining a polio-free status. The annual RCC meeting is an opportunity for all 22...