Wrishmeen Sabawoon, Shion Seino, Bakht Mohmmad Pason, Nek Wali Shah Momin, Sayako Kanamori, Connor Bender, Kazuhisa Takemura
{"title":"Progress in Access and Oral Polio Vaccine Coverage Among Children Aged <5 Years in Polio Campaigns After the Political Change in Afghanistan.","authors":"Wrishmeen Sabawoon, Shion Seino, Bakht Mohmmad Pason, Nek Wali Shah Momin, Sayako Kanamori, Connor Bender, Kazuhisa Takemura","doi":"10.1093/infdis/jiae129","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"BACKGROUND\nWarfare has long impeded vaccination programs in polio-endemic Afghanistan. We aimed to describe progress in access to children under 5, oral polio vaccine (OPV) coverage among children under 5 in nationwide polio campaigns, and polio surveillance performance indicators after the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan collapsed to Taliban forces in August 2021.\n\n\nMETHODS\nTrends in the number of wild poliovirus type 1 (WPV1) and circulating vaccine-derived poliovirus type 2 (cVDPV2) cases and surveillance indicators from 2015 to 2023, and trends in the OPV coverage in the November 2020-June 2022 polio campaigns, were described.\n\n\nRESULTS\nFrom 2015 to mid-July 2020, 74 of 126 (58.7%) WPV1 cases were reported from inaccessible areas. In November 2020, 34.1% of target children under 5 were inaccessible; in November 2021 (the first postchange polio campaign), all were accessible. From November 2020, under-5 OPV coverage of 69.9% rose steadily to 99.9% in the May 2022 campaign. The number of cVDPV cases fell from 308 (2020) to zero (2022). June 2022's house-to-house OPV coverage was 34.2% higher than non-house-to-house modalities. Nonpolio acute flaccid paralysis and stool adequacy rates rose from 18.5/100 000 and 92.6% in 2020 to 24.3/100 000 and 94.4% in 2022, respectively.\n\n\nCONCLUSIONS\nChildren's inaccessibility no longer vitiates polio eradication; polio surveillance systems are less likely to miss any poliovirus circulation.","PeriodicalId":501010,"journal":{"name":"The Journal of Infectious Diseases","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0000,"publicationDate":"2024-04-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"The Journal of Infectious Diseases","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1093/infdis/jiae129","RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":null,"ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"","JCRName":"","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
BACKGROUND
Warfare has long impeded vaccination programs in polio-endemic Afghanistan. We aimed to describe progress in access to children under 5, oral polio vaccine (OPV) coverage among children under 5 in nationwide polio campaigns, and polio surveillance performance indicators after the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan collapsed to Taliban forces in August 2021.
METHODS
Trends in the number of wild poliovirus type 1 (WPV1) and circulating vaccine-derived poliovirus type 2 (cVDPV2) cases and surveillance indicators from 2015 to 2023, and trends in the OPV coverage in the November 2020-June 2022 polio campaigns, were described.
RESULTS
From 2015 to mid-July 2020, 74 of 126 (58.7%) WPV1 cases were reported from inaccessible areas. In November 2020, 34.1% of target children under 5 were inaccessible; in November 2021 (the first postchange polio campaign), all were accessible. From November 2020, under-5 OPV coverage of 69.9% rose steadily to 99.9% in the May 2022 campaign. The number of cVDPV cases fell from 308 (2020) to zero (2022). June 2022's house-to-house OPV coverage was 34.2% higher than non-house-to-house modalities. Nonpolio acute flaccid paralysis and stool adequacy rates rose from 18.5/100 000 and 92.6% in 2020 to 24.3/100 000 and 94.4% in 2022, respectively.
CONCLUSIONS
Children's inaccessibility no longer vitiates polio eradication; polio surveillance systems are less likely to miss any poliovirus circulation.