World Polio Day, 24th October 2020

Poliomyelitis is an acute enteroviral infection. It is a crippling and potentially fatal infectious disease.

• Polio virus spreads rapidly amongst unimmunised populations and affects mostly children under the age of 5.
• As long as a single child remains infected, there is the potential for spread to all other countries.
• There is no cure, but there are safe and effective vaccines.
• The strategy to eradicate polio is based on preventing infection by immunising every child until transmission stops and the world is polio-free.

Since the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI) was launched in 1988, the incidence of polio has fallen by more than 99.9%, an estimated 16 million people today are walking who would otherwise have been paralysed by the disease, and more than 1.5 million people are alive, whose lives would otherwise have been lost.

World Polio day aims to celebrate this achievement and focus on the aim to eradicate polio.

Challenges

Poliomyelitis remains endemic in Afghanistan and Pakistan. It is proving difficult to eradicate poliovirus in these countries due to factors such as geographical isolation, poor public infrastructure, armed conflict and cultural barriers. The COVID-19 pandemic has also caused severe disruption to polio immunisation campaigns meaning there is a lot of work to be done to catch up now that vaccination campaigns have resumed.

All countries remain at risk of importation of polio from endemic countries; particularly those with travel or trade links, and vulnerable countries with unestablished public health systems or immunisation programmes.

Advice to Travellers

Travellers should be aware that poliovirus still persists in some regions of the world and unvaccinated individuals are susceptible to this severe infection.

• Travellers should practice safe food and water precautions whilst travelling.

Vaccination is dependent on the individual risk assessment, but should be considered for the following travellers:

• those with an incomplete vaccination history for polio, irrespective of region of travel.
• those travelling to endemic countries, or countries reporting outbreaks

Check the TRAVAX country pages for the latest advice on poliomyelitis to determine if a booster or proof of vaccination is required.