World Polio Day was established by Rotary International over a decade ago to commemorate the birth of Jonas Salk, who led the first team to develop a vaccine against poliomyelitis. Use of this inactivated poliovirus vaccine and subsequent widespread use of the oral poliovirus, developed by Albert Sabin, led to the establishment of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI) in 1988. Since then, GPEI has reduced polio worldwide by 99%.

Polio (poliomyelitis) mainly affects children under 5 years of age.

One in 200 infections leads to irreversible paralysis. Among those paralyzed, 5% to 10% die when their breathing muscles become immobilized.

Polio cases have decreased by over 99% since 1988, from an estimated 350 000 cases then, to 406 reported cases in 2013. The reduction is the result of the global effort to eradicate the disease.

In 2014, only 3 countries (Afghanistan, Nigeria and Pakistan) remain polio-endemic, down from more than 125 in 1988.

As long as a single child remains infected, children in all countries are at risk of contracting polio. Failure to eradicate polio from these last remaining strongholds could result in as many as 200 000 new cases every year, within 10 years, all over the world.

In most countries, the global effort has expanded capacities to tackle other infectious diseases by building effective surveillance and immunization systems.

Situation in Iran and polio eradication activities

Iran is a country which successfully eradicated polio. Within the Extended Program of Immunization division in the Directorate General of Communicable Disease Management, there is a unit in charge of polio eradication activities. In each province, the Vice-Chancellor of the Universities of Medical Sciences is responsible for implementation of polio eradication activities, which include routine polio immunization, Acute Flaccid Paralysis surveillance, and supplementary immunization wherever necessary, and prevention of wild polio importation.

As transmission of indigenous wild poliovirus continued in three countries: Nigeria, Afghanistan, and Pakistan, movements of populations from Afghanistan & Pakistan within eastern borders, is matter of concern to the Islamic Republic of Iran.

According to UNICEF record, acceptance of the polio vaccine in these countries has reached record highs through intense UNICEF-led social mobilization. World Polio Day, held annually on 24 October, focuses this year on the final push to end the crippling disease.

Dr. Shima Naghavi, Director of International Affairs