The Eastern Mediterranean Region is on track to be certified polio-free in 2023 if wild poliovirus transmission in Afghanistan and Pakistan can be interrupted by early 2020.
The WHO Western Pacific Region has been officially certified as free of indigenous wild poliovirus transmission.
Eradication certified that the Western Pacific Region (WPR) of the World Health Organization (WHO) is free of indigenous wild poliovirus transmission. The last known case of indigenous poliovirus transmission occurred in Cambodia in March 1997 in a 15-month-old girl. WPR is the second of the six WHO regions to be certified as poliomyelitis-free; the first was the Region of the Americas in 1994 (1). WPR comprises 37 countries and territories* (Figure 1) with an estimated 1.6 billion persons (27 % of the world’s population) (2). The commission completed a 5-year review of programmatic data compiled by national certification committees to ensure that the absence of reported wild poliovirus isolation reflected interruption of indigenous transmission. The prerequisite for regional certification is the absence of indigenous wild poliovirus isolation for at least 3 years (3). Other criteria used to certify that countries and regions are polio-free include 1) high vaccination coverage rates in all countries and within all areas of a country; 2) sensitive surveillance for detecting all cases of acute flaccid paralysis (AFP) meeting standard performance indicators (e.g., the processing of all stool samples from AFP case-patients in WHO-accredited laboratories); 3) a plan of action to respond to imported cases of polio
A 2019 study studied Poliomyelitis. Poliomyelitis eradication efforts was evaluated. The Eastern Mediterranean Region is on track to be certified polio-free in 2023 if wild poliovirus transmission in Afghanistan and Pakistan can be interrupted by early 2020.