Re-emergence of Wild Polio Virus in East Mediterranean Region: A Threat to World Polio Eradication Program Initiatives?

DEAR EDITOR, About 27 countries, mainly Arabic speaking, of different World Health Organization (WHO) regional offices in East Mediterranean Region poses a threat to World Polio Eradication Initiatives due to re‐emergence of wild polio virus (WPV) as evidenced in these countries. The different WHO regions are European Regional Office (EURO), East Mediterranean Regional Office (EMRO) and African Regional Office (AFRO). The WHO European Office countries are free from polio disease and further certified that WPV circulation is interrupted in the year 2002. Nigeria is the only country from WHO Africa Office where polio is still endemic. The Afghanistan and Pakistan are the other two endemic countries in Eastern Mediterranean area of WHO office where the circulation of WPV is still not interrupted. Somalia and Yemen have recently reported outbreak of cases of acute flaccid paralysis (AFP) due to WPV type 1 indicating WPV circulation in the area. The environmental surveillance in the form of sewer collections from Israel, Palestine and Egypt have demonstrated the presence of the WPV isolates in the samples collected in 2012‐2013. However, no polio cases are reported from these countries. These strains of WPV1 are linked not with each other but as well as to those already circulating in Pakistan. This explains a potential threat to India and other countries as well viewing Department of Community Medicine, Bundelkhand Medical College, Sagar, Madhya Pradesh, India