Polio Update Report

In 1988, when most of the world's children were unvaccinated against polio, Rotary took on the cause of eliminating the crippling disease by universally vaccinating every child. Today, with more than 2.5 billion children worldwide vaccinated and immune from polio, new cases have be reduced to a few per year and contained to two countries, Pakistan and Afghanistan.
 
This page contains information gathered by the World Health Organization and is updated weekly. For more information, contact District Polio Chair Lorna Gunning Fratschko.
 
Poliovirus Weekly Update
22-Apr-2025, World Health Organization
 
Officially reported WPV1 and cVDPV cases as of 22 Apr. 2025
 

Wild poliovirus (WPV)

·         Total global WPV1 cases in 2024: 99

·         Total global WPV1 cases in 2025: 8 (compared with 4 for the same period in 2024)


Circulating vaccine-derived poliovirus (cVDPV) cases

·         Total global cVDPV cases in 2024: 310

·         Total global cVDPV cases in 2025: 38 (compared with 22 for the same period in 2024)

New wild poliovirus isolates reported this week:
AFP cases: 1
Environment: 1
Others: 0

New cVDPV isolates reported this week:
AFP cases: 4
Environment: 0
Others: 3

HEADLINES

Launching today during World Immunisation Week, a new campaign calls on the UK public to get moving - literally - in the fight to end one of the world’s oldest and most preventable diseases. Running through to European Public Health Week, the initiative aims to turn collective action into global impact - with every step, stride, stroke, or spin logged in support of a polio-free future. Read more…

Last week, Ministers of Health from Cameroon, the Central African Republic, Chad, Niger and Nigeria launched a synchronized regional polio vaccination campaign, in a renewed effort to stop spread of cVDPV2 in the Lake Chad Basin. Read more…

Summary of new polioviruses this week:

  • Afghanistan:  one WPV1 case and one WPV1-positive environmental sample
  • Ethiopia:  three cVDPV2 cases
  • Nigeria: one cVDPV2 case

 
For more country information, please visit the respective pages within the Outbreak and Endemic country sections of the GPEI website.