Travelers going to or leaving countries in which the polio virus is still active should be immunized against the disease, and polio-free countries should require that proof of protection before granting entry visas, an advisory panel at the World Health Organization recommended yesterday in Geneva.
If that policy was put into effect today, it would affect 12 countries: Nigeria, India, Pakistan, and Afghanistan, all of which have never stopped transmission of the disease; and eight countries that have recently imported polio cases, Democratic Republic of Congo, Angola, Namibia, Ethiopia, Somalia, Niger, Bangladesh, and Nepal.
Only Saudi Arabia now requires the polio safeguards for entry, and only with travelers coming from Nigeria, which, as of yesterday, had registered 888 cases this year, or 63 percent of the world’s total.
In the last five years, polio has been exported largely from Nigeria and India into 24 countries, paralyzing roughly 1,400 children.
“The interest of everybody is that Nigeria should work more” diligently in vaccinating children against polio, Yagob Yousef Al-Mazrou , Saudi Arabia’s assistant deputy minister for curative health, said at a news conference.
The Advisory Committee on Polio Eradication makes nonbinding recommendations; the decision on polio safeguards is made by each country. The United States does not require polio immunizations for those entering the country; the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends polio vaccinations for Americans traveling to areas in which the disease is still active.
The fourth country in which polio is transmitted, Afghanistan, has recently announced major efforts to try to eradicate the virus.
David Heymann , the WHO representative for polio eradication, also announced that the campaign would no longer set a deadline to finish the job. The original target had been in 2000.
“We’re at the end stages of the program. There’s no need to retarget,” Heymann said. “What’s necessary now is to finish.”