Rotary International (RI) has announced that as of July 30, the Horn of Africa is again polio-free. Ethiopia, Kenya, Sudan, and Uganda have reported no wild poliovirus cases for more than a year.
“The date marks a step toward the achievement of a major objective of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative’s (GPEI) new strategy-stopping polio in Africa,” RI said in a press release. The GPEI spearheading partners are the World Health Organization, Rotary International, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and UNICEF.
The previous outbreak of wild poliovirus on the Horn began in 2008 with the reemergence of wild poliovirus type 1 in the border regions of southern Sudan and Ethiopia. The outbreak then spread in early 2009 to Kenya, Uganda, and the city of Port Sudan. According to RI, this regional outbreak left 101 children paralyzed in these four countries between March 2008 and July 2009. The Port Sudan cases caused particular international concern because from 2004 to 2006, the same type 1 wild poliovirus from that area reinfected several countries, including Indonesia, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, and Yemen. That outbreak was quelled thanks to international immunization campaigns, improved technical support for the immunization programs, and strong political action in the affected countries.
Afghanistan, India, Nigeria, and Pakistan are still experiencing wild poliovirus outbreaks and have been responsible for ongoing outbreaks in areas including Angola and Tajikistan. Somalia and Ethiopia, which have experienced major advances toward polio eradication, are currently delaying some of their vaccination and education initiatives until later in 2010 in order to put their limited financial resources toward maintaining efforts in endemic countries and nations that have new virus transmission.
