Media Statement from WHO South-East Asia Regional Office
The South-East Asia Region of the World Health Organization (WHO), comprising of 11 countries including India, continues to be polio free. No child has been afflicted by wild poliovirus since the last case was reported from West Bengal, India, in January 2011.
All countries in the Region continue to maintain a very high vigil for poliovirus detection. As part of this, environmental surveillance – collection of samples from sewage – is being conducted regularly from 30 sites across seven states in India.
On very rare occasions, vaccine-derived polio viruses (VDPVs) are isolated from sewage samples. Prompt and adequate response to VDPVs detected in the sewage samples in the past has prevented any spread of these viruses in the community. It is important to note that such viruses have been detected from environmental samples only – no children have been affected nor cases of paralysis associated. Detection of such rare VDPVs is not unusual or unexpected, and robust short- and long-term management strategies are in place to adequately manage the small risks associated with such isolates.
To further mitigate the small risk of VDPVs, globally nearly 155 countries have switched from using the trivalent oral polio vaccine to the bivalent oral polio vaccine. The switch in April 2016, under the Polio End Game Plan is a critical step to prevent VDPVs and stop all polio, whether due to wild or vaccine-derived viruses.
The Ministry of Health, supported by WHO and partners of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI), continues to conduct strong surveillance for any poliovirus from any source, and continues to strengthen overall population immunity to ensure children continue to be fully protected from lifelong polio paralysis. The South-East Asia Region was certified polio-free on 27 March 2014 and there is no threat to the Region’s polio-free status from the VDPV isolates in the sewage samples.
WHO’s South-East Asia Region comprises the following 11 Member States: Bangladesh, Bhutan, Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, India, Indonesia, Maldives, Myanmar, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Timor-Leste.
Media Contacts
Ms Shamila Sharma Communication Officer WHO Regional Office for South-East Asia E-mail: sharmasha@who.int Mobile: +91 98182 87256 Tel: +91 11 23370804, Extn: 26575