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                           --------------------
Date:         Fri, 22 Sep 1995 00:50:02 GMT
From: Steve Lancaster 
Press Release WHO/29 - 8 April 1994
POLIOMYELITIS ERADICATION:
141 POLIO-FREE COUNTRIES REPORTED IN 1993
        The number of countries reporting zero incidence of
poliomyelitis rose to 141 in 1993, the highest ever recorded.  A
total of 7898 cases was registered in 46 countries during the year, or
less than half of the 15 911 cases which occurred in 58 countries in
1992.  These figures are contained  in a report1  released today in
Geneva by the World Health Organization (WHO).
        In 1988, the World Health Assembly launched an initiative to
eradicate poliomyelitis by the year 2000.  Since September 1991, the
Western hemisphere as a whole has reported zero cases of paralytic
poliomyelitis.  Last year a few isolates of the wild poliovirus,
imported from the Netherlands, were detected in Canada in a religious
community which refused immunization.  There were no paralytic cases
and the virus apparently failed to spread to other susceptible
communities in the United States and Canada.
        At the present time, apart from the Western hemisphere, there
are five zones where polio is either absent or occurs at very low
levels.  These emerging polio-free zones are: Western and Central
Europe, North Africa, Southern and Eastern Africa, the Arabian
Peninsula and the Western Pacific.
        Europe reported 187 cases of poliomyelitis in 1993;  161 cases
- or 86% of the total - were reported from nine of the Newly
Independent States of the former Soviet Union; Azerbaijan and
Uzbekistan reported outbreaks of 64 and 68 cases respectively.  Both
of these outbreaks resulted from vaccine shortages which developed
following independence.  Inadequate vaccine supply for the Newly
Independent States represents a continuing threat to the region.
        The WHO Western Pacific Region recorded a 60% decline in the
number of reported cases of poliomyelitis.  There were 1912 cases
recorded in 1992 and 761 cases in 1993.  Only six countries in the
Region have reported cases in the last three years; among them
Cambodia, China and Viet Nam account for 99% of all cases registered
in 1993.  The Region is well on target of becoming the second
polio-free area in the world in 1995.
        The South-East Asia Region saw a 54% decline in the number of
cases in 1993.   There were 4423 reported cases last year as compared
with 9611 cases in 1992.  This is largely explained by a 59% decrease
in India, which reported 4077 cases in 1993.  The figure for 1992 was
9203 cases.   In other countries of the Region poliomyelitis
incidence remains at static levels with the notable exception of
Indonesia which saw a dramatic reduction from 119 to 16 cases.
        Against the backdrop of almost universal decline in the number
of reported polio cases there is one Region - the Eastern
Mediterranean - which reported a 24% increase in polio incidence last
year.   There were 2360 cases in 1993, while in 1992 there were 1901
registered cases.  For the most part, the increase is due to large
outbreaks of the disease in Pakistan and Sudan.  Pakistan reported
1803 cases in 1993, a 72% increase over the 1046 cases reported in
1992.
        1 Progress Towards the Global Eradication of Poliomyelitis:
Status Report, March 1994, WHO, Geneva, Switzerland.
        "Strange as it may seem, we actually welcome these figures",
says Dr Nick Ward, in charge of WHO's Poliomyelitis Eradication
Initiative. "This is a clear indication of an improved epidemiological
surveillance system in the Region.  Unless such a system is firmly in
place, eradication is not achievable.  Considerable under-reporting
is still a major problem in a number of endemic countries."
        Nation-wide immunization efforts in countries with a very
large population, like China or India, are considered to be crucial
to the global polio eradication campaign.
        In both 1989 and 1990, epidemics of approximately 5000 cases
of paralytic poliomyelitis were recorded in China.  Since those days,
supplementary doses of oral polio vaccine to children less than four
years of age were administered in 25 out of 30 provinces in China.  As
a result, the number of reported cases dropped to 344 in 1993.
However, the biggest event was the first National Immunization Day
when an estimated 100 million children under four years of age were
vaccinated in December 1993, followed by a supplementary dose in
January 1994.  That was the biggest number of children ever immunized
against a disease anywhere in the world.
        National Immunization Days were successfully conducted in a
number of other countries.   Egypt started this practice in 1990.
Between 1991 and 1992, six million doses of oral polio vaccine were
administered to children under five years of age.  By 1993, polio
ceased to exist as a wide-spread endemic disease, having acquired a
limited, focal character.
        Public health authorities in the Philippines and in Viet Nam
gained valuable experience in conducting their own National
Immunization Days in 1993 and 1994.  As a result, nearly 10 million
children under five years of age received supplementary doses of oral
polio vaccine in each country.
        "WHO's initiative to eradicate poliomyelitis worldwide - the
first viral disease to be wiped out after smallpox - is well
underway", comments Dr Jong Wook Lee, Director of WHO's Global
Programme for Vaccines. "There is strong and continued support on the
part of the international community and the United Nations family,
most notably UNICEF and Rotary International.  A great number of
national public health authorities are committed to the goal of
achieving global eradication by the year 2000.   In helping our
Member States to reach the target we must be certain that there are
no shortages either of vaccine or of trained personnel.  Increased
funding is the answer to these problems."
***************
        For further information please contact Dr Nick Ward, WHO's
Global Programme for Vaccines, Geneva, Switzerland:  telephone
(41-22) 791 4408;  fax (41-22) 788 2071.
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