The WHO Western Pacific Region has maintained its polio-free certification for over a decade through robust surveillance and rapid control of importations and vaccine-derived outbreaks.
The WHO Western Pacific Region has successfully maintained its polio-free status for over a decade through robust surveillance and rapid outbreak response.
On 29 October 2000, the World Health Organization (WHO) Regional Commission for the Certification of Poliomyelitis Eradication in the Western Pacific certified the WHO Western Pacific Region as free of indigenous wild poliovirus. This status has been maintained to date: wild poliovirus importations into Singapore (in 2006) and Australia (in 2007) did not lead to secondary cases, and an outbreak in China (in 2011) was rapidly controlled. Circulation of vaccine derived polioviruses in Cambodia, China and the Philippines was quickly interrupted. A robust acute flaccid paralysis surveillance system, including a multitiered polio laboratory network, has been maintained, forming the platform for integrating measles, neonatal tetanus, and other vaccine-preventable disease surveillance and their respective control goals. While polio elimination remains one of the most important achievements in public health in the Western Pacific Region, extended delays in global eradication have, however, led to shifting and competing public health priorities among member states and partners and have made the region increasingly vulnerable.
Adams et al. (2014) conducted a review in Poliomyelitis. Polio eradication and surveillance programs was evaluated on Maintenance of polio-free certification. The WHO Western Pacific Region has maintained its polio-free certification for over a decade through robust surveillance and rapid control of importations and vaccine-derived outbreaks.