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Polio this week

“We are one step away from eradication – Britain must not walk away.”
Click here for an editorial by British Member of Parliament Bob Blackman, in response to the UK’s recent announcement to end its funding for GPEI, amid a new detection of virus from a London environmental sample.  “We will regret if we let a generation of progress, and the chance to end this disease forever, slid away.”

Gavi:  in Zimbabwe, an almost-deadly collision between fake news and a real virus
Read this informative article by Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, about how misinformation can affect and potentially derail polio vaccination campaigns, and what partners and authorities did to combat such misinformation.

UNICEF ExD on high-level visit to Somalia
UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell visited Somalia last week, meeting with officials, health workers, parents and children, including at a UNICEF-supported hospital in Mogadishu where a mother had brought in her baby for a polio vaccination.  Children in Somalia continue to face the threat of polio, and UNICEF and its partners continue to support the government and people of Somalia to end polio in their country.

Summary of new polioviruses this week:

  • Afghanistan:  one WPV1 case and 12 WPV1-positive environmental samples
  • Pakistan:  two WPV1-positive environmental samples
  • Nigeria:  one cVDPV2 case
  • Somalia:  one cVDPV2-positive environmental sample
Country updates as of 31 March 2026

More information on the countries that have reported cases and/or environmental samples this week.

  • One WPV1 case was reported this week, with onset of paralysis on 15 January 2026, from Hilmand.  It is the first case reported in 2026.  The number of cases in 2025 is 21.
  • 12 WPV1-positive environmental samples were reported this week, from Hilmand, Kandahar, Uruzgan, Kunduz, Hirat and Badghis, collected in January and February 2026 (most recent positive environmental sample:  23 February 2026).

  • No WPV1 case was reported this week. The total number of cases in 2025 is 31. The total number of cases in 2026 is one (onset of paralysis: 10 February 2026).
  • Two WPV1-positive environmental samples were reported this week, from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, collected on 4 March 2026 (most recent positive environmental samples).

  • One cVDPV2 case was reported this week, from Zamfara, with onset of paralysis on 23 February 2026 (most recent case).  The total number of cVDPV2 cases reported in 2025 is 66.  The total number of cVDPV2 cases reported in 2026 is ten.
  • No cVDPV2-positive environmental samples were reported this week (most recent positive environmental sample:  27 January 2026).

  • No cVDPV2 case was reported this week.  There are two cases reported in 2026 (most recent case:  3 February 2026).  There have been two cases reported in 2025.
  • One cVDPV2-positive environmental sample was reported this week, from Banadir, collected on 15 February 2026 (most recent positive environmental sample).