News Stories
06/09/2024
Over 187 000 children under ten years of age were vaccinated with novel oral polio vaccine type 2 (nOPV2) in central Gaza during the first phase of a two-round polio vaccination campaign, conducted between 1–3 September 2024. Vaccination coverage in this p...
30/08/2024
• Supported by a US$5M commitment, the campaign will enable the inoculation of more than 640,000 Gazan children, delivered in cooperation with the World Health Organization, UNICEF and UNRWA
• The vaccination campaign represents a critical effort to pr...
21/08/2024
In Afghanistan’s remote and mountainous Nuristan province, children are highly vulnerable to polio and other deadly diseases due to multiple, intersecting needs that stem from long-standing isolation and multiple deprivations.
21/08/2024
My name is Lalgul, and I am the father of Ghafar. We live in south-eastern Afghanistan. I was away from home when my son got sick. I returned and found Ghafur paralysed. He was one and a half years old.
It started with a high fever, then his right leg bec...
16/08/2024
Jerusalem/Cairo/Amman - Two rounds of a polio vaccination campaign are expected to be launched at the end of August and September 2024 across the Gaza Strip to prevent the spread of circulating variant type 2 poliovirus (cVDPV2).
WHO and UNICEF request...
07/08/2024
It is with great sadness that we wish to inform you of the sudden and tragic passing of Mr Aidan O’Leary, Director for Polio Eradication at WHO. Aidan passed away suddenly on the evening of Tuesday 6 August, while he was on holiday with his family.
Our...
30/07/2024
Athletes from around the world unite for a polio-free future
26/07/2024
26 July 2024, Cairo, Egypt - Health ministers from across the Eastern Mediterranean Region have united to address the polio emergency in the occupied Palestinian territory. The urgent need for coordinated, collective regional action to combat circulating v...
19/07/2024
Circulating variant type 2 poliovirus (cVDPV) has been confirmed in the Gaza Strip. Virus was isolated from six environmental (sewage) samples, collected from two different collection sites in two sub-regions within Gaza, collected on 23 June 2024.
The va...
12/06/2024
On 14 May 2024, the wild poliovirus outbreak in Malawi and Mozambique – which paralyzed nine children across the countries between February and August 2022 – was officially stopped. The virus, linked to a strain originally found in Pakistan, was unable t...
11/06/2024
When a 5.9-magnitude earthquake struck south-eastern Afghanistan in the early hours of 22 June 2022, WHO’s polio workers were among the first responders. As dawn broke in Khost and Paktika provinces, and the extent of the devastation became evident, they h...
06/06/2024
Advocating for a Polio-Free Future for Every Child
31/05/2024
Countries convening at this week’s World Health Assembly discuss a range of public health topics – but why does this matter for polio?
14/05/2024
After a thorough evaluation, an independent Polio Outbreak Response Assessment Team (OBRA), has concluded that there is no evidence of ongoing wild polio transmission in Mozambique and Malawi