Progress Toward Interruption of Wild Poliovirus Transmission ---
Worldwide, 2008 Since 1988, when the Global Polio Eradication
Initiative was established, the incidence of polio has decreased
from an estimated 350,000 cases annually to 1,655 reported in
2008.* Cases of wild poliovirus (WPV) type 2 were last reported
in October 1999, and indigenous WPV types 1 and 3 (WPV1 and
WPV3) have been eliminated from all but four countries worldwide
(Afghanistan, India, Nigeria, and Pakistan). This report updates
previous reports (1,2) and describes overall progress toward
global eradication in 2008. Despite accelerated efforts, polio
cases increased 26%, from 1,315 cases in 2007 to 1,655 in 2008.
This increase primarily resulted from an increase in Nigeria
from 285 cases in 2007 to 801 cases in 2008. Resurgent WPV1
transmission in northern states of Nigeria spread to polio-free
southern states and eight neighboring countries in 2008. In
India, repeated use of monovalent oral poliovirus vaccine (OPV)
type 1 (mOPV1) duri