Attachments
Headlines:
- The Rt Hon Andrew Mitchell, MP, Minister of State (Development and Africa), United Kingdom, is the latest Polio Gender Champion. The Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI) recognizes that both gender responsive programming and organizational change are key to gender mainstreaming. Polio eradication interventions cannot effectively reach every last child unless informed by sex-disaggregated data and gender-sensitive analysis. The Gender Champion for Polio Eradication is a concrete effort to build off of the current movement by high-level, national and international gender champions and to highlight the role of gender in achieving polio eradication, by committing to the GPEI Gender Equality Strategy and supporting its full implementation.
- The Strategic Advisory Group of Experts on immunization (SAGE) met last week in Geneva, to deliberate on a broad range of immunization issues, including on polio eradication. On polio eradication, to enable and ensure a timely and effective response, SAGE stressed conducting outbreak response without delay. For outbreak response with oral polio vaccines, novel oral polio vaccine type 2 (nOPV2) should be used preferentially. However, if unavailable, Sabin OPV type 2 could be used under exceptional circumstances, such as due to a supply shortage of nOPV2, inability to achieve Emergency Use Listing (EUL) readiness, or co-circulation with other polioviruses warranting response with trivalent oral polio vaccine. To more rapidly boost immunity levels, nOPV2 could be used at shorter intervals (1-2 week interval, compared to traditional 4-week interval). The group also recommended that in areas of persistent poliovirus circulation, countries should supplement outbreak response with additional campaigns using inactivated polio vaccine (IPV – full or fractional dose). More.
- In Afghanistan, the polio programme provides vital support to nationwide measles vaccination. More.
- From Pakistan, read the latest newsletter from the country’s polio Emergency Operations Centre (EOC), available here.
- UN Foundation: women are the backbone of immunization efforts and polio eradication. More.
- This month marks two years since novel oral polio vaccine type 2 (nOPV2) began its field rollout. We interviewed co-leads of GPEI’s nOPV Working Group – Simona Zipursky (WHO) and Ananda Bandyopadhyay (BMGF) – on the journey and the vaccine’s performance so far. Approximately 590 million doses of nOPV2 have been administered across 28 countries under its WHO Emergency Use Listing (EUL) to date. An additional 13 countries have met the requirements for nOPV2 use in the event of an outbreak. For more information on nOPV2, visit: www.polioeradication.org/nOPV2
Summary of new polioviruses this week:
- Afghanistan: one wild poliovirus type 1 (WPV1)-positive environmental sample
- Central African Republic (CAR): five circulating vaccine-derived poliovirus type 2 (cVDPV2) cases
- Chad: two cVDPV2 cases
- Democratic Republic of the Congo (DR Congo): 11 circulating vaccine-derived poliovirus type 1 (cVDPV1) cases and 22 cVDPV2 cases
- Madagascar: three cVDPV1-positive environmental samples
- Nigeria: two cVDPV2-positive environmental samples