The World Health Organization (WHO) announced an outbreak of poliovirus in Tajikistan. Official statement of the WHO says.
The organization designated the situation as a grade 2 emergency.
As of 18 March, 4 paralytic cases of children infected with circulating vaccine-derived poliovirus type 2 (cVDPV2) have been reported in Tajikistan, with several cVDPV2 cases detected in community and close contacts.
The first cVDPV2 case with onset of acute flaccid paralysis (AFP) was reported on November 22, 2020 in Khatlon province, linked to a virus strain currently circulating in Pakistan. A second case of cVDPV2 was confirmed in February 2021 in a child that presented with AFP in Khatlon province. On March 8, two more cVDPV2 cases with AFP were confirmed in Hisor district.
«In addition, 3 environmental samples from the newly established surveillance site in Dushanbe were reported cVDPV2 positive,» WHO says.
As the WHO statement says, a thorough investigation is underway including visits to hospitals, contact tracing and review of subnational vaccine coverage data.
In February 2021, the country completed a planned nationwide inactivated polio vaccine (IPV) catch-up campaign to ensure that all children who may have missed receiving protection against type 2 poliovirus are protected from becoming sick and suffering potential paralysis should they come into contact with the virus. Routine coverage with IPV was estimated to be 96 percent in 2019 and over 90 percent in 2020.
«The catch-up campaign in February similarly achieved high coverage among the remaining type 2-naive children,» WHO added.
On 8 March 2021, the detection of cVDPV2 cases in Tajikistan was reviewed by WHO and designated as a grade 2 emergency.
«This internal grading by WHO allows the mobilization of the needed resources, including for the provision of surge support for various technical areas to the WHO Country Office. Neighboring countries are included in the graded emergency as these countries should be prepared and ready to prevent, detect and treat polio cases,» the statement says.
