Polio Remains Endemic In Regions As Global Eradication Efforts Continue

Polio has continued to be endemic in Afghanistan and Pakistan, underscoring the need for intensified efforts to eradicate the virus as the 2025 global eradication target approaches.

During a recent discussion by health experts, several other regions were identified as areas of concern, including the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Somalia, South Sudan, Gaza, Yemen, Nigeria, and the Lake Chad Basin. These regions face significant challenges such as conflict, limited access to healthcare, and inadequate vaccination coverage, which hinder the fight against the disease.

Due to wars and  conflicts that make it difficult to reach children in volatile environments, the Global Polio Eradication Initiative recently made a decision to extend the timeline for eradication from 2026 to 2029.

The speakers also led deep dives on the global effort to eradicate polio, from the recent campaign in Gaza to government leadership in Pakistan to community engagement across southeast Africa.

After this summer’s case of polio in Gaza, the Global Polio Eradication Initiative, GPEI has heightened its efforts to prevent further outbreaks.

Dr. Hamid Jafari, the Director of Polio Eradication at the World Heqlth Organisation, WHO Eastern Mediterranean Region, says the effective vaccination campaign in Gaza shows that more can be achieved in keeping polio away from conflict zones.

“To correctly suggest that we can do a whole new points again next year, we are confident of the fact that we  have come close to elimination. But the key is to ensure that the final safe haven for the virus in insecure areas among migrants,  mobile populations and among vaccines hesitant communities is tightly fixed, then we can finally hold up these challenges and ensure that polio is eradicated.”

To ensure eradication of polio, identification of the most vulnerable communities with the highest number of  unvaccinated and under-vaccinated children, should be prioritised.

There has to be community specific, content specific and support specific.

Tsedeye Girma, a Senior Programme Manager – Polio Outbreak Response -UNICEF,  opines that stopping outbreaks is critical to ending polio.

“We are in a good place in the sense that we are seeing a steady progress over the years but the main message we want to convey, which is what is concerning us is that today we do have the virus in federal statics. Out of the 541 children affected by polio last year,  85% of these live in fragile conflict affected and vulnerable countries.

“Countries that cannot say to be very disaster prone for example. This is a major concern because there  is a population displacement and other issues, making it  conducive for the virus to circulate.

“We need to make sure that children in conflict settings are safe and have opportunities and advantages as any other children.”

Gimma continues, “We have to continue making sure that we are not missing children. That is equity issue, our commitment is to reach children up to the last mile. To do so, we rely on vaccination, UNICEF has been able to deliver 1 billion doses of vaccines annually, which is quite an achievement that we are aiming to sustain. We are obviously not doing this alone within the GPEI, we rely heavily on local communities, local partnerships, engagements with religious and traditional leaders and political figures. Recently in Nigeria, we have been able to gain the support of influential traditional leaders, religious figures, and this is really crucial to build trust in vaccines among the care givers to communities, putting access especially to the  most treacherous areas.”

Dr. Stella Anyangwe of the Rotary International and  an End polio coordinator is of the opinion that everyone has a role to play in polio eradication.

“We all need to know where we are with the fight against polio. We need to know where we are going from here. You don’t need to be a medical person to know about polio and its effect in the world, hence the need to share. We need to share what we know with communities, with political leaders, with administrative leaders, with community leaders, so that the population understands why they should vaccinate their children.”

Polio is a disease that should give everyone concern until it’s eradicated from every corner of the world because everyone and every country remains at risk.