Case incidence of wild poliovirus was significantly reduced in 2015-2016, compared with 2014, according to a report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention published in Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.
In 2015, 74 cases of wild poliovirus (WPV) were reported in Pakistan and Afghanistan, a reduction of 79% from 2014, when 359 cases were reported in nine countries. Twelve cases of WPV were reported from Jan. 1 to May 4, 2016, down from 23 cases during Jan. 1 to May 4, 2015.
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Further progress toward the elimination of polio was made in September 2015, when the World Health Organization removed Nigeria from the list of countries with endemic polio. In that same month, the Global Commission for the Certification of Poliomyelitis Eradication announced that WPV type 2, not seen since 1999, had been eradicated.
“With progress made during 2015-2016 toward interruption of WPV transmission in Afghanistan and Pakistan, the world is closer than ever to the eradication of polio. Continued cooperation between the two countries is needed for this goal to be reached,” the CDC investigators said.
Find the report in MMWR (doi: 10.15585/mmwr.mm6518a4)