New Polio Cases Reaffirm Travelers Should Be Vaccinated

According to the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI), a joint Polio Independent Monitoring Board and Transition Independent Monitoring Board meeting will be held in Geneva, Switzerland, beginning July 15, 2024.

The goal of the meeting is to assess the challenges of eliminating polio in the endemic and outbreak countries.

Unfortunately, the GPEI reported three additional wild poliovirus type 1 (WPV1) cases in Afghanistan last week, bringing the country's total for 2024 to nine.

In 2023, Afghanistan reported six WPV1 cases. 

In this region, Pakistan, which is also fighting the speed of poliovirus, reported eight new WPV1 environmental detections last week.

In addition to these polio disclosures, the U.S. CDC says to interrupt poliovirus transmission, a renewed focus on increasing routine immunization coverage in endemic areas and implementing higher-quality supplementary immunization activities is necessary.

Over the last decade, about 10 billion doses of oral polio vaccine were administered worldwide, reports the GPEI.

The CDC's Global Polio Travel Advisory (May 2024) recommends that before visiting any of the 34 destinations, adults who completed the full, routine polio vaccine series may receive a single, life booster dose of polio vaccine.

In the United States, polio vaccines are generally available at pharmacies and travel clinics.