World Health Organization she is sure to eradicate polio stopping all infections by the end of 2029, despite a jump in new cases this year, it says BBC in Serbian.
The World Polio Eradication Initiative was launched in 1988, when wild poliovirus infected 350.000 people in 125 countries.
Currently, wild cases of polio have been reported in only two countries: Afghanistan and Pakistan, both of which reported six cases each in 2023.
This year, 39 cases were reported in Pakistan and 22 in Afghanistan.
Will the surge in new infections thwart the ambition to create a polio-free world?
Jawad is a 30-month-old boy from the northwestern Pakistani city of Quetta.
He is among the latest victims of wild poliovirus.
In November last year, he had a very high fever and pneumonia.
When my son woke up in the morning, we saw that one of his legs was not working. He couldn't stand on her," recalls Javad's father Jalil Ahmad.
Doctors confirmed that Javad suffered a paralytic attack.
"This is very stressful for my wife and me. I took him to other doctors, but they told me there was nothing they could do."
There is no cure for polio, but it can be prevented by vaccination.
"When he was born, we didn't give him any drops, but after three months we did. But we didn't give him an injection."
Jalil Ahmad often takes his son to his grocery store and tries to cheer him up.
But he himself gets depressed whenever he thinks about his son's future.
"When he tries to walk, he can't straighten his leg. It is deformed."
Unceasing optimism
Despite the jump in the number of polio cases, the WHO is not worried.
"Poliovirus, until stopped, re-emerges periodically, which we have seen this year," explains Dr. Hamid Jafari, Director of Polio Eradication, WHO for the Eastern Mediterranean Region.
Polio eradication in Afghanistan and Pakistan involves giving every child under the age of five two drops of the polio vaccine at regular intervals.
"Local immunization teams track, map and go to nomadic populations that often miss polio vaccine and other routine vaccines," Jafari says.
Vaccinators travel by motorcycle to remote areas to reach people on the move.
Although cases are on the rise, Jafari says, "The genetic diversity of the virus remains at an all-time low with only two genetic clusters in circulation, as opposed to 12 in 2020."
What is polio and how is it spread?
Polio is an infection caused by the poliovirus.
The virus is spread through contact with the faeces (poop) of an infected person or, less often, through droplets when the person coughs or sneezes.
Polio most often affects children under the age of five.
"One in every 200 infections leads to incurable paralysis. "Among those paralyzed, five to 10 percent die when their breathing muscles become immobilized," says the WHO.
Immunization programs have successfully eradicated two of the three wild poliovirus strains, but the battle is not over.
"As long as a single child remains infected, children in all countries are at risk of contracting polio," says the WHO.
But polio can also be caused by a vaccine.
Vaccination
The vaccine contains a weakened, live form of the virus that can reproduce harmlessly in the intestines and then be passed out in the feces.
It can then spread through sewage to unvaccinated people.
The US government's Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says that large outbreaks of vaccine-derived poliovirus have occurred primarily in Africa.
Between January 2023 and June 2024, CDS reports that there were 74 outbreaks of vaccine-induced poliovirus affecting 672 people in 39 countries.
In war-torn Gaza, vaccine-induced polio partially paralyzed a 10-month-old boy in August this year.
A massive vaccination campaign was immediately launched there.
The Polio Eradication Initiative says, "Over the past ten years, more than ten billion doses of OPV (polio drops) have been administered to nearly three billion children worldwide."
Pakistan regularly conducts door-to-door vaccination campaigns.
The latest campaign was carried out in September.
After a gap of five years, in June 2024, a nationwide door-to-door vaccination campaign was carried out in Afghanistan.
But the oral vaccination program scheduled for September was canceled by the Taliban authorities.
The Taliban's Ministry of Health did not respond to questions from the BBC about the future of the polio campaign.
Source: BBC in Serbian
