Here are some updates concerning the global polio situation, according to the Global Polio Eradication Initiative:

Nigeria

vaccination
Image/Chris Zahniser, B.S.N., R.N., M.P.H.

January 24, 2015 marked six months since the most recent case of wild poliovirus in Nigeria. To turn six months into 12 months, focus must be maintained through elections next month and into the critical polio low season ahead, during which five more vaccination rounds will be conducted throughout Nigeria. High quality immunization campaigns must be sustained and continued investment in surveillance systems to effectively identify and report polio cases.

The most recent case had onset of paralysis on 24 July in Sumaila Local Government Area (LGA), southern Kano state.

Syria

Syria has now gone more than a year with no reported cases of polio so the outbreak appears to have ended. Dedicated health workers and parents, and cooperation between a range of partners, seem to have stopped the outbreak in its tracks despite enormous challenges. The intense region-wide immunization activities that began the same month the outbreak was confirmed, October 2013, show the polio programme can move quickly in even the most difficult circumstances. Now all partners must remain vigilant so that any further transmission is quickly identified and interrupted.

Pakistan

Four new wild poliovirus type 1 (WPV1) cases were reported in the past week, including 2 with onset of paralysis in 2015. One case was reported in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) province, in Lakki Marwat district; one in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA), in Khyber Agency; and 2 in Balochistan province (1 in Killa Abdullah and 1 in the newly infected district of Jafarabad). The total number of WPV1 cases in 2014 is now 305, and 3 for 2015.