WHO Epidemiological Brief 7: polio outbreak in the European Region and country responses

As of 10 September, Tajikistan had reported 456 laboratory-confirmed cases of wild poliovirus type 1, including 20 deaths. The last confirmed case in Tajikistan had a date of onset of 4 July. Since the beginning of 2010, the Russian Federation has reported 12 polio cases and Turkmenistan reported 3 cases.

Tajikistan has conducted four rounds of national immunization days (NIDs) and Uzbekistan, three rounds. Kyrgyzstan held its second round of NIDs on 23–27 August, while Turkmenistan’s second round of NIDs took place on 26 August – 5 September. Coverage was extremely high in all rounds in all countries.

The WHO European Region has experienced the first importation of wild poliovirus since it was certified polio free in 2002.