The news as of March 25, 2020 from the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI) continues to be less than rosy. Thus far in 2020 there have been 34 cases of polio caused by the wild poliovirus, 32 in Pakistan and 2 in Afghanistan.  This compares with 14 cases at this time a year ago.  There has also been 48 cases of vaccine derived polio (cVDPV) compared to 12 one year ago.  About half the cases of cVDPV have occurred in Pakistan with the balance in the Philippines (1) and the remainder in Africa. 

 

With the current world wide pandemic, it is quite possible that we will see a slowing of immunization efforts.  Should that happen, we can expect the numbers of poliovirus case to continue rising versus one year ago.

 

Please read elsewhere in this newsletter for other articles on polio and the eradication effort.