WHO Epidemiological Brief: polio outbreak in the European Region and country responses: No. 6, 3 September 2010

Abstract

The WHO European Region has experienced the first importation of wild poliovirus since it was certified poliomyelitis (‎polio)‎ free in 2002. As of 3 September 2010, Tajikistan had reported 456 laboratory‐confirmed cases of wild poliovirus type 1, including 20 deaths. The last confirmed case in Tajikistan had a date of onset of 4 July. Since the beginning of the year, the Russian Federation has reported 12 polio cases. Four rounds of national immunization days (‎NIDs)‎ in Tajikistan and three rounds in Uzbekistan had taken place. Kyrgyzstan began its second round of NIDs on 23 August 2010. Turkmenistan’s second round of NIDs is under way (‎26 August – 5 September)‎. Coverage was extremely high in all rounds in all countries.