Vaccines Reduce Africa's Polio Outbreaks

Across the African Region, efforts continue to be intensified to reduce polio outbreaks, wrote the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI). 

As of June 7, 2023, Africa's largest polio vaccination drive since 2020 was launched, aiming to reach more than 21 million children. 

Simutantioly, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) launched a campaign using the novel oral polio vaccine type 2 (nOPV2) with children. The nOPV2 vaccine has been deployed over 620 million times since 2021.

There were 14 polio cases in the DRC in 2023, and 146 patients were confirmed in 2022.

The GPEI also posted a summary of new polioviruses this week:

• Afghanistan: one WPV1 case and five WPV1 positive environmental samples
• Pakistan: two WPV1-positive environmental samples
• Chad: two cVDPV2 cases
• DRC: five cVDPV2 cases
• Zambia: one cVDPV2 positive environmental sample

As of June 9, 2023, the U.S. CDC maintains it's Alert - Level 2, Practice Enhanced Precautions global polio travel alert.

The CDC says before any international travel, ensure you are up to date on your polio vaccines. Furthermore, the nOPV2 polio vaccine is not available in the U.S.