South-East Asia Region celebrates a decade of wild polio-free certificationOn 27 March 2014, India was officially certified wild polio-free. As the last country battling the virus in the WHO South-East Asia Region (SEAR), it paved the way for the entire Region to be certified wild polio-free.Read more in the...

Ongoing circulating vaccine-derived poliovirus type 2 (cVDPV2) outbreak in IndonesiaIndonesia reported outbreak of cVDPV2 in October 2022 that continues to spread further in the country. The outbreak was first detected in Aceh province, and more recently the virus has spread to Central and East Java provinces. &nbs...

Health leaders call for focused efforts in endemic and most consequential geographiesGlobal health leaders and Ministers of Health at the 154th session of the WHO Executive Board in January 2024 reaffirmed their commitment to eradicate polio once and for all and use the polio investments to build strong, equitable ...

nOPV2 gets prequalified by WHOIn late December 2023, the World Health Organization issued its first-ever prequalification approval for a vaccine being used under its Emergency Use Listing (EUL) regulatory pathway – novel oral polio vaccine type 2 (nOPV2). Since rollout of the vaccine in March 2021, the Global Polio Eradi...

GPEI – a brief review of 2023 and full focus on 2024The Global Polio Eradication Initiative has two goals laid out in its current strategy: to interrupt all remaining transmission of endemic wild poliovirus type 1 (WPV1) and to stop all outbreaks of variant poliovirus type 2 (cVDPV2). 2023 was a critical year for p...

Global Polio Partners, Paris Saint-Germain Endowment Fund, and the French Gaming Community Unite to #ENDPOLIOOn 5th December the French gaming community made a call for collective action to defeat a common adversary – only it was not an online gaming threat, but poliovirus.Read more in the latest issue of th...

29th meeting of the Regional Certification Commission on Polio Eradication in Western Pacific RegionThe 29th meeting of the Regional Commission for Certification (RCC) of Poliomyelitis Eradication in Western Pacific convened on 28-30 November 2023 in Manila, PhilippinesRead more in the latest issue of the bu...

Twenty-fourth meeting of the Global Commission for the Certification of the Eradication of Poliomyelitis (GCC)On 22-23 November 2023, the Global Commission for Certification of Poliomyelitis Eradication (GCC) met in Geneva, Switzerland.Read more in the latest issue of the bulletinRead more in the lat...

Fighting polio vaccine misinformationWhile the end of polio is within reach, immunization efforts can easily be derailed by the rapid spread of vaccine misinformation. A few years ago, fake videos of children falling sick after receiving polio vaccination spread like wildfire on social media in Pakistan causing mas...

World Polio Day 2023: A global and urgent call to “Make Polio History”To celebrate this year’s World Polio Day, supporters from over 30 countries, across every region of the world, joined the Make Polio History campaign to tell global partners, donors, and polio-affected country governments that eradication is po...

Twenty-second report from the Independent Monitoring BoardThe Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI) welcomes the latest report from the Independent Monitoring Board (IMB), which presents a rigorous independent review of the programme’s progress toward its goals - aiming to interrupt all remaining wild poliovirus typ...

AFP surveillance training in MalaysiaFollowing request from the Ministry of Health of Malaysia on 19-21 September 2023 WHO organized training on surveillance for Acute Flaccid Paralysis (AFP) for national and state level health care workers both public health and clinicians.Read more in the latest issue of t...

Polio nowThe Strategy Committee of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI) has commissioned a formal evaluation of the 2016 global withdrawal of Sabin poliovirus 2 (OPV2) and switch from trivalent oral polio vaccine (tOPV) to bivalent OPV (bOPV).Read more in the latest issue of the bulletinRead more...

GPEI delegation concludes visit to PakistanA high-level delegation of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI), including the Polio Oversight Board (POB), visited Pakistan on 16 – 20 July to discuss the impact of political transition on eradication efforts and the strategies in place to vaccinate children tha...

Urgent actions are required in African region to response to polio outbreaksAt the 31st meeting of the Africa Regional Certification Commission (ARCC) held in the Democratic Republic of the Congo from 3 to 7 July, the ARCC urged countries and health partners to urgently address gaps in polio immunity to avert outbreaks. ...

32nd Meeting of the Technical Advisory Group on Immunization and Vaccine-Preventable Diseases in the Western Pacific RegionThe 32nd Meeting of the Technical Advisory Group (TAG) on Immunization and Vaccine-Preventable Diseases in the Western Pacific Region was convened on 20-23 June in Manila, the Philippines.Read...

Eleventh Meeting of the Combined Sub-regional Committees for the Certification of Poliomyelitis Eradication and Verification of Measles and Rubella Elimination in Pacific Island Countries and AreasThe 11th meeting of the combined sub-regional committees for the certification of poliomyelitis eradication and verific...

Supplementary immunization activities in Papua New GuineaOn Monday May 8, 2023, the Department of Health of Papua New Guinea supported by the WHO, UNICEF and other partners launched a vaccination campaign to address gaps in population immunity against childhood diseases.Read more in the latest issue of...

Meeting of the Global polio eradication initiative Surveillance GroupThebiannualmeetingofGlobalPolioEradicationInitiative(GPEl)'s Surveillance Group (SG) was held in Atlanta, GA, USA from 17-19 April 2023.Read more in the latest issue of the bulletinR...

Rigorous independent review to assess status to meeting end-2023 critical goals2023 is the target year for the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI) to interrupt all remaining wild poliovirus type 1 (WPV1) and circulating vaccine-derived poliovirus type 2 (cVDPV2) transmission chains.Read more in the latest i...