Headlines 

• Women health workers leading efforts to end polio in Pakistan
  Click here for a powerful message by WHO Eastern Mediterranean Regional Director Dr Hanan Balkhy, on the incredible work by women health workers to end polio in their communities, during a recent visit to Peshawar, Pakistan.
• Nelson Mandela: “We are not free until every child is free from polio.”
  Celebrating Nelson Mandela Day with our South African colleagues
  This month, as we mark Nelson Mandela Day, we are reminded of the power of courage, unity, and collective resolve in the face of daunting challenges. In 1996, Nelson Mandela lent his voice and stature to the campaign to “Kick Polio Out of Africa,” joining forces with Rotary International at a time when polio paralysed over 75,000 children across the continent every year. Thanks to that bold initiative — and decades of unrelenting effort since — Africa is now free of wild poliovirus.  But we must keep fighting until variant forms of the virus are gone for good, as well.  Nelson Mandela understood that. In his words: “We are not free until every child is free from polio.” His call resonates even more urgently today than ever before.

Summary of new polioviruses this week, cases and positive environmental isolates:

• Afghanistan:  four WPV1-positive environmental samples
• Angola:  one cVDPV2 case
• Cameroon:  one cVDPV3 case
• Chad:  one cVDPV2-positive environmental sample
• Papua New Guinea:  ten cVDPV2-positive environmental samples
• Somalia:  one cVDPV2-positive environmental sample
• Yemen:  22 cVDPV2 cases and 17 cVDPV2-positive environmental samples