A mobile vaccination team provides polio vaccinations to nomadic communities during the accelerated immunization campaign in October 2019 in Rehaid locality, on the border of Sudan and CAR. ©WHO/Sudan 12 December 2019 -- The World Health Organization and national health authorities in Sudan are scaling up efforts to reduce the risk of poliovirus...

Majra Bibi gives polio drops to 10-day-old Bilal Khan at a health unit in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, Pakistan. The polio programme works to vaccinate every child and detect the poliovirus wherever it remains. ©WHO/Asad Zaidi 12 November 2019 -- In a rapidly expanding megacity, amongst conflict or in mountainous border areas, how does the polio...

Women go the distance during door-to-door polio vaccination in Hyderabad district, Sindh Province, Pakistan. ©WHO/Asad Zaidi Dr Hamid Jafari, Director of the Polio Eradication Programme in the Eastern Mediterranean Region, calls for determination as we tackle the last hurdles to eradication 24 October 2019 – As the new director of the Polio...

23 October 2019 – World Polio Day on 24 October 2019 arrives at a critical moment for the programme worldwide, and especially in the Eastern Mediterranean Region. It’s no secret that 2019 has been a tough year for our Region, with more than 80 children paralyzed by wild poliovirus in Pakistan and Afghanistan. As the polio programmes in the 2...

5 September 2019, Cairo, Egypt ‒ The Islamic Advisory Group for Polio Eradication (IAG) held its sixth annual meeting reaffirming its commitment to global polio eradication efforts and reiterating its trust in the safety and effectiveness of the poliovirus vaccine as a preventative and life-saving tool that protects children. The meeting was...

Background 16 August 2019 - The Technical Advisory Group (TAG) on polio eradication in Afghanistan and Pakistan is the principal advisory group for polio eradication for both Afghanistan and Pakistan. The TAG is an independent body charged with advising and making recommendations to each ministry of health and Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI)...

Progress to end polio discussed at the Thirty-third meeting of the Eastern Mediterranean Regional Certification Commission for Poliomyelitis Eradication Two year old Rajesh from the Eastern Mediterranean region shows off his purple finger, indicating that he has been vaccinated against the poliovirus. Photo: WHO Pakistan/Asad Zaidi 5 August 2019 –...

19-year-old vaccinator Shamima with her intricately embroidered notebook cover and carrier bags 8 March 2019 – Across the Eastern Mediterranean Region, efforts to stamp out vaccine-derived polio outbreaks and interrupt transmission of wild poliovirus depend on the hard work of hundreds of thousands of men and women. On International Women’s Day, we...

Shire vaccinating a childMohamed Shire, a polio eradication expert from Somalia, speaks about lessons from a life tirelessly working to eradicate first smallpox, then polio I have spent nearly my whole career working on eradication programmes – first smallpox, then polio. Eradication has been a rewarding career for me because I am so curious to know...

Searching for gaps WHO surveillance officers visit a village in a high-risk area to carry out an AFP case investigation. Photo: WHO Sudan8 February 2018 – As the world inches closer towards a polio-free future, finding and closing remaining gaps in national health system capacities to pick up traces of the virus is critical. Only three countries...