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The three-decade-long campaign to eradicate polio--not long ago a worldwide scourge--passed an important milestone this month. The Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI) announced the eradication of wild poliovirus type 3 (WPV3). Type 2 was declared eradicated in 2015. That leaves only one type of wild polivirus, WPV1, still in circulation.
That good news is augmented by the fact that WPV1 only exists in two countries, Afghanistan and Pakistan. This allows resources to be focused on those last two remaining reservoirs of the deadly virus.
However, the goal of finally eradicating polio remains elusive. There have been more cases of wild-virus-caused polio in those two countries (18 and 76 respectively) this year than in 2018. And, there have been a significant number of cases caused when the weakened virus used for oral inoculation mutates back to a disease-causing form. Although very rare, when millions of children are given the oral vaccine, mutation back to a virulent form is enough to keep the disease alive.
To address this problem, GPEI has now shifted into its Polio Endgame Strategy. This is a multifaceted campaign involving continued mass inoculations, rapid response teams to quickly contain and snuff out any flareups, and a shift from oral live attenuated immunization to inoculation by injection of completely inactivated virus. The endgame campaign is estimated to cost $4.2 billion and take four years. If it succeeds, humanity will have eliminated a second deadly disease (smallpox was the first) and no child will ever again be killed or paralyzed by polio.
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You can read an executive summary of the endgame strategy here.
Somali child receiving an injection of inactivated poliovirus
Credit: PV2 Andrew W. McGalliard
Public Domain
That good news is augmented by the fact that WPV1 only exists in two countries, Afghanistan and Pakistan. This allows resources to be focused on those last two remaining reservoirs of the deadly virus.
However, the goal of finally eradicating polio remains elusive. There have been more cases of wild-virus-caused polio in those two countries (18 and 76 respectively) this year than in 2018. And, there have been a significant number of cases caused when the weakened virus used for oral inoculation mutates back to a disease-causing form. Although very rare, when millions of children are given the oral vaccine, mutation back to a virulent form is enough to keep the disease alive.
To address this problem, GPEI has now shifted into its Polio Endgame Strategy. This is a multifaceted campaign involving continued mass inoculations, rapid response teams to quickly contain and snuff out any flareups, and a shift from oral live attenuated immunization to inoculation by injection of completely inactivated virus. The endgame campaign is estimated to cost $4.2 billion and take four years. If it succeeds, humanity will have eliminated a second deadly disease (smallpox was the first) and no child will ever again be killed or paralyzed by polio.
-----
You can read an executive summary of the endgame strategy here.
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