Category: Polio
Together, Let’s End Polio: Reflections from CDC’s 2022 Polio Response in Malawi

CDC Health Scientist Stephanie Dopson reflects on her recent deployment to Malawi supporting the CDC Polio Response. Throughout my 23-year career at CDC, time and time again, I am reminded that it takes the collaboration of many to make a difference in public health. I have served in many responses and deployments, including the anthrax Read More >
Posted on by Leave a commentWe can finish the job of Polio Eradication but, it will not be easy.

This year, 2019, has been a challenging one for polio eradication. Though we have made incredible gains in recent years, the polio program has faced two critical challenges. First, an increase in wild poliovirus (WPV) cases in Pakistan and Afghanistan, the only two countries with detected WPV cases since 2016. And second, a large increase Read More >
Posted on byOvercoming Refusals to Polio Vaccination in Uttar Pradesh, India

In 2014, WHO South-East Asia Region (SEAR) became the fourth region, among WHO’s six regions, to be certified as having interrupted all wild polio virus (WPV) circulation. India was the last country to eliminate polio in SEAR, proving that polio could be eradicated in the most challenging settings. Multiple international partners collaborated with Government of Read More >
Posted on byThirty years of a Unique Partnership to End Polio-GPEI

In 1988, CDC joined three other partners (World Health Organization (WHO), United Nation International Children Fund (UNICF) and Rotary International to launch the ambitious Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI). The world was a dangerous place with respect to polio. A case of polio occurred every 90 seconds, meaning 350,000 children had paralytic polio every year. Read More >
Posted on byThe Global Polio Eradication Initiative History Project: Documenting the Eradication of Polio

The Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI) is a partnership led by five organizations: the World Health Organization (WHO), Rotary International, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The goal of GPEI is to eradicate polio worldwide. Based at the David Read More >
Posted on byPolio Eradication and Beyond: What the Polio Endgame Means for Public Health

The end of polio is in sight, with fewer cases of wild polio virus being reported yearly. Today, polio is on the cusp of eradication, with cases in only a few high-risk areas of three countries—Afghanistan, Nigeria, and Pakistan. This brings the eradication effort to its final chapter, otherwise known as the polio endgame. The Read More >
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