The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends polio vaccination boosters for travelers and those who live in countries where the disease is endemic.In July 2022, the US state of New York reported a polio case for the first time in almost a decade in the country. Health officials said the person, an unvaccinated young adult who had not recently travelled abroad, first showed symptoms a month earlier and eventually developed paralysis. The New York State Health Commissioner subsequently attributed this to a vaccine-derived strain of the virus. This strain had also had been detected in wastewater in New York City. As of September 13, 2022 vaccine-derived polio is confirmed to be circulating locally in Rockland County and may be circulating locally in Orange County and may be circulating locally. Western Pacific
In 2000, polio was declared to have been officially eliminated in 37 Western Pacific countries, including China and Australia.Despite eradication ten years earlier, an outbreak was confirmed in China in September 2011, involving a strain common in Pakistan.In September 2019, the Department of Health of the Philippines declared a polio outbreak in the country after a single case in a 3-year-old girl. The outbreak was declared to be ended during June 2021. In December 2019, acute poliomyelitis was confirmed in an infant in Sabah state, Borneo, Malaysia. Subsequently, a further three polio cases were reported, with the last case reported in January 2020. Prior to this, Malaysia had been declared polio-free in 2000. WHO declared an end to the outbreak in September 2021.
Both outbreaks were found to be linked instances of vaccine-derived poliomyelitis. Europe
Europe was declared polio-free in 2002. Southeast Asia
The last case of polio in the region was in India (part of the WHOs South-East Asia Region) in January 2011. Since January 2011, there have been no reported cases of the wild polio infections in India, and in February 2012 the country was taken off the WHO list of polio endemic countries.On 27 March 2014, the WHO announced the eradication of poliomyelitis in the South-East Asia Region, which includes eleven countries: Bangladesh, Bhutan, North Korea, India, Indonesia, Maldives, Myanmar, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Timor-Leste. With the addition of this region, 80 per cent of the world population was considered to be living in polio-free regions. Middle East
In Syria difficulties in executing immunization programs in the ongoing civil war led to a return of polio, probably in 2012, acknowledged by the WHO in 2013. 15 cases were confirmed among children in Syria between October and November 2013 in Deir Ezzor. Later, two more cases, one each in rural Damascus and Aleppo, were identified. It was the first outbreak in Syria since 1999. Doctors and international public health agencies report more than 90 cases of polio in Syria, with fears of contagion in rebel areas from lack of sanitation and safe-water services. A vaccination campaign in Syria operated literally under fire and led to the deaths of several vaccinators, but returned vaccination coverage to pre-war levels.An outbreak of vaccine-derived polio was confirmed in 2017 in eastern Syria.