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Outbreak
Notice
Outbreak: Polio Eradication Activities, Africa
(Updated: October 20, 2004; August 31, 2004;
July 8, 2004; May 28, 2004; May 7, 2004;
March 4, 2004. Released October 23, 2003)
The Global Polio Eradication Initiative, spearheaded by 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 national Ministries of Health, has reduced the
number of cases worldwide from 350,000 in 1988 to fewer than 800
in 2004. Intensified immunization activities are now focused on
the few countries where indigenous transmission continues to occur:
Nigeria, India, Pakistan, Niger, Egypt, and Afghanistan. While
global eradication efforts have been largely successful, this year
the number of children paralyzed by polio in sub-Saharan Africa
is three times higher than in 2003. Recent cases of poliomyelitis
in Benin, Botswana, Chad, Côte d’Ivoire, Burkina Faso,
Cameroon, Central African Republic, Guinea, and Sudan have been
linked to outbreaks in the northern Nigerian state of Kano. Until
last year, these countries had been considered polio-free.
On October 8, 2004, the Global Polio Eradication Initiative reported
that 23 African countries would be launching a 4-day campaign to
vaccinate 80 million children across sub-Saharan Africa. The synchronized
campaign is in response to poliomyelitis outbreaks in African countries
where the disease had been eradicated, as well as ongoing transmission
in Niger and northern Nigeria, where vaccination efforts had been
suspended in August 2003. The state resumed vaccination activities
in July 2004.
According to the recommended childhood immunization schedule,
all infants and children in the U.S. should receive four doses
of inactivated poliovirus vaccine (IPV) at 2, 4, and 6-18 months
of age and 4-6 years of age. Adults who are traveling to polio-endemic
areas and have received a primary series with either IPV or OPV
should receive another dose of IPV. For adults, available data
do not indicate the need for more than a single lifetime booster
dose with IPV.
For more information about polio and polio vaccine, see these
websites:
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