In US, UK And Elsewhere, Why Polio Is A Worry Again

The fight to end the disease is at a crossroads as cases are found in countries that had long been free of it and inceaatton drives are hit ity Covid SISRHET vax hesitancy

Polio cases worldwide have declined by 99.9% since the late 1980s, when a global initiative was launched to tackle the disease that can paralyse those affected and even cause death. India was recognised as having eliminated the wild poliovirus in 2014. Yet the goal of making polio only the second disease – after smallpox – to have been completely stamped out has remained elusive.

Successes with universal inoculation drives mean Pakistan and Afghanistan are now the only two countries in the world where polio is endemic. But discovery of polio cases recently in the US, UK and Israel has set alarm bells ringing in health and policy circles. In September this year, New York declared a state of emergency for polio after samples of circulating vaccine-derived polioviruses (cVDPVs) were detected in sewage water. These are mutated versions of the virus that are found in under-immunised communities.

And their detection following pandemic-related disruptions to health systems and the “infodemic” sparked by Covid-19 point to the new challenges this old foe has thrown up.

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