Statement on the 8th IHR Emergency Committee meeting regarding the international spread of poliovirus: It’s still a Public Health Emergency of International Concern
March 10th, 2016March 1, 2016
“….The Committee unanimously agreed that the international spread of polio remains a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC) and recommended the extension of the Temporary Recommendations for a further three months. The Committee considered the factors expressed in reaching this conclusion at the seventh meeting still applied:
- The continued international spread of wild poliovirus during 2015 involving Pakistan and Afghanistan.
- The risk and consequent costs of failure to eradicate globally one of the world’s most serious vaccine preventable diseases.
- The continued necessity of a coordinated international response to improve immunization and surveillance for wild poliovirus, stop its international spread and reduce the risk of new spread.
- The serious consequences of further international spread for the increasing number of countries in which immunization systems have been weakened or disrupted by conflict and complex emergencies. Populations in these fragile states are vulnerable to outbreaks of polio. Outbreaks in fragile states are exceedingly difficult to control and threaten the completion of global polio eradication during its end stage.
- The importance of a regional approach and strong cross-border cooperation, as much international spread of polio occurs over land borders, while recognizing that the risk of distant international spread remains from zones with active poliovirus transmission.
- Additionally with respect to cVDPV (circulating vaccine-derived polioviruses):
- cVDPVs also pose a risk for international spread, and if there is no urgent response with appropriate measures, particularly threaten vulnerable populations as noted above;
- The emergence and circulation of VDPVs in four WHO regions demonstrates significant gaps in population immunity at a critical time in the polio endgame;
- There is a particular urgency of stopping type 2 cVDPVs in advance of the globally synchronized withdrawal of type 2 component of the oral poliovirus vaccine in April 2016.