24th October 2018 is World Polio Day

Poliomyelitis is an acute enteroviral infection. It affects mostly children under the age of 5 and in its most severe form the disease may result in permanent paralysis.

Since the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI) was launched 30 years ago, the incidence of polio has fallen by more than 99.9%, from about 350,000 cases a year to just 22 cases in 2017. World Polio day aims to celebrate this achievement and focus on the aim of eradicating polio.

Challenges

The disease is still endemic in 3 countries (Afghanistan, Nigeria and Pakistan) and sporadic outbreaks in other countries still occur mainly due to importation of virus or vaccine-related strains.

The polio cases represented by the remaining one percent are the most difficult to prevent, due to factors including geographical isolation, poor public infrastructure, armed conflict and cultural barriers.

Unless polio is eradicated, within 10 years there could potentially be as many as 200,000 new cases each year, worldwide.

Polio virus spreads rapidly amongst unimmunised populations. As long as a single child remains infected, there is the potential for spread to all other countries.

Advice to Travellers

• Ensure British Vaccination Schedule up to date/complete.
• Travellers should be aware that the disease still persists in some regions of the world and unvaccinated individuals are susceptible to this severe infection.
• Check the most recent advice for the countries to be visited.
• Practice good food/water hygiene whilst travelling.

When to Consider Vaccination

Vaccination should be considered under the following circumstances and is dependent on the individual risk assessment:

• Individuals with an incomplete vaccination history for polio, irrespective of region of travel.

Travellers to endemic countries or countries reporting outbreaks (see individual country pages for further information).