Assessing and Mitigating Local Vulnerabilities to Completeness of Global Polio Eradication COMMENT

• Authors: Ananda S Bandyopadhyay, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation; Walter Orenstein, Emory University
• Journal Title: JOURNAL OF THE PEDIATRIC INFECTIOUS DISEASES SOCIETY
• Volume: Volume 11, Number 1
• Publisher: OXFORD UNIV PRESS | 2022-01-27, Pages 3-4
• Type of Work: Article | Final Publisher PDF
• Publisher DOI: http://doi.org/10.1093/jpids/piab102
• Subjects: Health Sciences, Medicine and Surgery
• Keywords: Science & Technology; Life Sciences & Biomedicine; Infectious Diseases; Pediatrics

Abstract

The battle to eradicate poliomyelitis is at a crossroads in 2021 with endemic wild-type poliovirus (WPV) transmission at historic lows in Pakistan and Afghanistan, whereas the emerging and ongoing outbreaks of circulating type 2 vaccine-derived polioviruses (cVDPV2) pose a serious challenge to the global program [1]. Two papers in this issue reporting studies in Chad and India illustrate both the risks of re-introduction of virus transmission in polio-free geographies as well as affordable mitigation options to protect the populations from paralytic disease [2, 3].