To improve lives. 16 million people are walking today who would have otherwise been paralyzed. To invest in the future. If polio isn’t eradicated, within 10 years, as many as 200,000 children could be paralyzed by it each year. A polio-free world will be a safer world for children everywhere. To improve child health. Polio surveillance networks and vaccination campaigns also monitor children for other health problems like vitamin deficiency and measles, so they can be addressed sooner. To save money. A polio-free world will save the global economy $40-$50 billion in health costs within the next 20 years. To make history. Polio eradication would be one of history’s greatest public health achievements, with polio following smallpox to become only the second human disease eliminated from the world.

Headlines:

• The Thirty-third meeting of the Eastern Mediterranean Regional Commission for Certification of Poliomyelitis Eradication was held in Muscat, Oman, to review the regional epidemiology. The meeting brought together members of the RCC, chairpersons of the National Certification committees, polio program representatives, and WHO staff from the headquarters, regional, and the endemic countries. Read more.
• Summary of new viruses this week: Afghanistan — three wild poliovirus type 1 (WPV1)-positive environmental samples; Pakistan — five wild poliovirus type 1 (WPV1) case and five WPV1-positive environmental samples; Nigeria —two circulating vaccine-derived poliovirus type 2 (cVDPV2) cases, one cVDPV2-positive environmental sample; Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) — two cVDPV2 cases; Angola — two cVDPV2 cases; Benin — one cVDPV2 case. See country sections below for more details.

Afghanistan:

• No wild poliovirus type 1 (WPV1) case has been reported in the past week. There are 12 WPV1 cases reported in 2019. The were 21 WPV1 cases reported in 2018.
• Three WPV1-positive environmental samples were reported in the past week: two from Kandahar district, Kandahar province, and one from Lashkargarh, Hilmand province. The samples were collected on 24 July 2019.

Pakistan:

• Five wild polioviruses type 1 (WPV1) cases were reported in the past week: three from Bannu district and one from Charsadda district, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province; and, one from South Waziristan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. All cases had onset of paralysis in July 2019. There are 53 WPV1 cases in 2019 and 12 WPV1 cases were reported in 2018.
• Five WPV1-positive environmental samples were reported in the past week: one each from Lahore, Multan, and Faisalabad districts, Punjab province; one from Landhi Town, Karachi district, Sindh province; and, one from Quetta district, Balochistan province. The samples were collected between 17-20 July 2019.