No new Wild Polio cases reported this week!  

What is that Polio Picture? We celebrate no wild polio cases in Pakistan for more than one year!!  In this picture, TRF Trustee Aziz Memon receives an award for his decades-long Polio eradication efforts.  read more about TRF Aziz’s honor here.

UNICEF would like to thank Rotary International for its very generous contribution of  $11,780,000 to Pakistan to support Social Mobilization and Communication and also $ 13,612,794 to support Outbreak response.

Ukraine Catch-Up – A poliomyelitis (polio) vaccination campaign for children aged 6 months to 6 years who missed routine polio doses in the past will begin in Ukraine on 1 February 2022. This catch-up campaign is part of a comprehensive response to stop an outbreak of poliovirus first detected in Ukraine in October 2021. This first stage will last 3 weeks and is expected to reach nearly 140,000 children throughout the country.

Years of low immunization coverage in Ukraine have created a large pool of unvaccinated or under-vaccinated children who are vulnerable to polio. While routine immunization coverage has gradually increased over the past 6 years, in 2020, only 84% of 1-year-olds received the required 3 scheduled doses of polio vaccines by 12 months of age.

The immediate goal of the campaign is to reach the WHO-recommended level of 95% vaccination coverage of eligible children.

 A Win Against Polio is a Win for Global Health!

2021 Circulating Vaccine Derived Polio Cases – 584 – Afghanistan – 43 (308 in 2020), Angola – 0 (3 in 2020), Benin – 2 (3 in 2020), Burkina Faso – 1 (65 in 2020), Cameroon – 3 (7 in 2020), CAR – 0 (4 in 2020), Chad – 0 (99 in 2020), Congo – 2 (2 in 2020), Cote d’ Ivoire – 0 (64 in 2020), DRCongo – 24 (81 in 2020), Ethiopia – 10 (36 in 2020), Ghana – 0 (11 in 2020), Guinea – 6 (44 in 2020), Guinea Bissau – 3 (0 on 2020), Liberia – 3 (0 in 2020),Madagascar – 11 (2 in 2020), Mali – 0 (52 in 2020), Malaysia – 0 (1 in 2020),  Niger – 10 (10 in 2020), Nigeria – 395 (8 in 2020), Pakistan – 8 (135 in 2020), Philippines – 0 (1 in 2020), Senegal  – 17 (0 in 2020), Sierra Leone – 5 (10 in 2020), Somalia – 1 (14 in 2020), South Sudan – 9 (50 in 2020), Sudan – 0 (58 in 2020), Tajikistan – 32 (1 in 2020), Togo – 0 (9 in 2020), Ukraine – 2 (0 in 2020), and Yemen – 13 (33 in 2020).

New This Week – Chad – 2 cVDPV2 Samples, Djibouti – 3 cVDPV2 Samples, DR Congo – 3 cVDPV2 Cases + 1 cVDPV2 Sample, Nigeria – 2 cVDPV2 Cases + 12 cVDPV2 Samples. 

A total of 1,110 Vaccine Derived Polio cases were reported in 26 countries in 2020.

Quote of the Day

“What is clear is that in 2022, we have a very real and realistically achievable opportunity to finish wild poliovirus from the world once and for all.”

—Aidan O’Leary, Director of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI)

The Final Two Polio Endemic Countries:

0 New Polio cases reported this past week.
4 Wild Polio case – 2021. The most recent cases had an onset of paralysis on 11/11/21.
56 Wild Polio cases – 2020.  No WPV1 & CVDPV2-Positive Environmental Sample were reported this week in Afghanistan.

Our Goal is Global Polio Eradication!!

Terry Ziegler, Endowment/Major Gifts Adviser Rotary Region 36