(File Photo) A child being vaccinated against polio.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has declared the global eradication of wild poliovirus type 3.
The announcement, made on World Polio Day follows an independent commission of experts’ review of the situation worldwide.
The news represents a historic achievement for humanity and a milestone for global health following the eradication of smallpox and wild poliovirus type 2.
At the WHO headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, Professor David Salisbury, chair of the independent Global Commission for the Certification of Poliomyelitis Eradication, presented the official certificate of WPV3 eradication to Dr. Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of the WHO.
“Wild poliovirus type 3 is globally eradicated,” said Professor Salisbury.
Dr Ghebreyesus who doubles as the chair of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI) Polio Oversight Board said commitment from partners and countries, coupled with innovation, has left only one of the three wild polio serotypes remaining.
“We remain fully committed to ensuring that all necessary resources are made available to eradicate all poliovirus strains. We urge all our other stakeholders and partners to also stay the course until final success is achieved,” he added.
The last case of WPV3 was detected in northern Nigeria in 2012. Since then, the strength and reach of the eradication programme’s global surveillance system has been critical to verify that this strain is truly gone.
Investments in skilled workers, innovative tools and a global network of laboratories have helped determine that no WPV3 exists anywhere in the world, apart from specimens locked in secure containment.
“This is a significant achievement that should reinvigorate the eradication process and provides motivation for the final step – the eradication of wild poliovirus type 1. This virus remains in circulation in just two countries: Afghanistan and Pakistan,” Dr. Ghebreyesus said.
He said the efforts must not be stopped as the remaining strain of wild poliovirus must be eradicated.
“We do have good news from Africa: no wild poliovirus type 1 has been detected anywhere on the continent since 2016 in the face of ever improving surveillance.
Although the region is affected by circulating vaccine-derived polioviruses, which must urgently be stopped, it does appear as if the continent is free of all wild polioviruses, a tremendous achievement.”Eradicating WPV3 proves that a polio-free world is achievable,” he added/
Wild Poliovirus Strains
There are three individual and immunologically-distinct wild poliovirus strains: wild poliovirus type 1 (WPV1), wild poliovirus type 2 (WPV2) and wild poliovirus type 3 (WPV3).
Symptomatically, all three strains are identical, in that they cause irreversible paralysis or even death.
But there are genetic and virologic differences which make these three strains three separate viruses that must each be eradicated individually.
WPV3 is the second strain of the poliovirus to be wiped out, following the certification of the eradication of WPV2 in 2015.
By Jamila Akweley Okertchiri