Polio

National Vaccination Day celebrates Pulse Polio Immunization Programme launched in 1995 to fight a disease that has now been eradicated in the country

More than 33 million children in several southern African countries have been vaccinated against polio, part of ongoing efforts to eradicate the infectious paralytic disease that has been largely contained in much of the world, the World Health Organization announced on Friday. About 80 million drops of the inoculation have been placed in the mouths of children across Malawi, Mozambique, Zambia, Tanzania and Zimbabwe since the launch of an emergency response in March last year, WHO said in a statement. Malawi detected the wild poliovirus disease in a young child in its capital, Lilongwe, in February last year the first time the strain was reported in Africa in five years. The virus spread to neighboring Mozambique, causing other countries in the region to be on alert. Africa was certified as free of indigenous wild polio in 2020, according to WHO, which says the recent strain originated from Pakistan. The South Asian country and its neighbor, Afghanistan, are the only two countries

The resurfacing of the cases has certainly raised concerns among the partners, including World Health Organization (WHO) and other stakeholders

Pakistani authorities launched a new nationwide anti-polio drive on Monday amid a spike in new cases among children, health officials said. It is the sixth such campaign this year and will last for five days, aiming to inoculate children under the age of 5 in high-risk areas. The newest drive was aimed at Islamabad and in the high-risk districts in eastern Punjab and southwestern Baluchistan province. A similar campaign will be launched in the northwest in the first week of December. Pakistan regularly launches polio campaigns despite attacks on workers and police assigned to inoculation drives. Militants falsely claim the vaccination campaigns are a Western conspiracy to sterilise children. Since April, Pakistan has registered 20 new polio cases and the outbreak has been seen as a blow to the efforts to eradicate the disease, which can cause severe paralysis in children. Pakistan came close to eradicating polio last year, when only one case was reported. Since then, new cases

Pakistan has kicked off a week-long nationwide anti-polio vaccination campaign in an effort to prevent more children from falling victim to the crippling disease

Pulse polio immunisation booths will be set up at several Delhi Metro stations on the Violet Line which can be availed by people during September 18-20, the DMRC said on Saturday. The booths will set up at Sarai, NHPC Chowk, Bata Chowk, Old Faridabad, Escorts Mujesar, and Raja Nahar Singh (Ballabhgarh), among other stations, the DMRC said in a poster shared on Twitter. "Pulse Polio Booths will be set up at select metro stations of Violet Line for SNID round of Pulse Polio Immunisation Programme 2022-23 from 18-20 September 2022 from 09.00 AM to 04.00 PM," it said. National Immunisation Day (NID) commonly known as Pulse Polio Immunisation programme was launched in India in 1995, and is conducted twice in early part of each year. Additionally, multiple rounds (at least two) of sub national immunisation day (SNID) have been conducted over the years in high-risk states or areas. In these campaigns, children in the age group of 0-5 years are administered polio drops.

The US now joins a list of nearly 30 other countries with circulating vaccine-derived poliovirus (cVDPV) identified by the WHO, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said

In June, the UK Health Security Agency reported that polio virus had been detected in sewage in north and east London post which vaccine boosters were offered.

There must be several hundred cases of undiagnosed polio circulating in the US, according to a senior official with the CDC

An unvaccinated young adult from New York recently contracted polio, the first US case in nearly a decade, health officials said

Pak has been facing a tough battle against poliovirus for years with an unwelcoming attitude toward vaccines in rural areas and negative propaganda against health workers

The gunmen attacked the team while it was on a door-to door anti-polio vaccination drive after nine new cases were reported this year in the district

A massive anti-polio campaign in Pakistan targeting 12.6 million children under the age of five, will begin on Monday as the country has reported 11 confirmed cases this year

The country saw two polio cases on April 22

Despite spending $5 billion during the last 27 years, the dream of a polio-free Pakistan remained elusive with the emergence of two back-to-back polio cases in April, the media reported.

The Israeli Ministry of Health has said it has detected polio infection in a 4-year-old child in Jerusalem

Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya launched the National Polio Immunisation Drive for 2022 by administering polio drops to children below five years of age

It is not the first time assailants have attacked vaccination teams

The three-day campaign was launched in collaboration with the Unicef and the World Health Organization (WHO)

Most immunisation programmes witnessed a decline in 2020; India was worst among South Asia and, in some cases, one of the worst significant economies in the world