Polio Was Almost Eradicated. This Year It Staged a Comeback.

This article in The New York Times describes some of the ominous setbacks that global polio eradication efforts have faced in 2022. After decades, Malawi, Israel, Britain, and the U.S. either reported new cases of polio or detected virus in wastewater. Previously, Pakistan and Afghanistan remained two of the final frontiers for polio eradication.

While the U.S. and Britain have high immunization rates, geographic pockets of low immunity may allow polio to spread. According to the World Health Organization, the U.S. could lose its "polio-free" status if the disease continues to spread for a year. In other countries, the COVID-19 pandemic diverted necessary resources and staff from polio prevention programs, derailing prevention efforts and "resulting in the world backslide in immunization rates in 30 years."

Wild poliovirus is on the decline, with global cases dropping 99 percent since initial efforts began in 1988. However, as the article notes, vaccine-derived polio—weakened virus that shed through feces following the oral polio vaccine—is on the upswing. In the broader context of weakened health systems, the response to tackling vaccine-derived polio has been inefficient. 

The current context about polio eradication is a helpful illustration of where complex factors—health systems, global pandemic, and culture—all collide. As such, this piece can anchor lessons focused on infectious disease control, global governance, and public health decision-making. In addition to The New York Times article, educators may wish to explore the following pieces that focus on the impact of conflict and the U.S. context in greater depth:

• Polio Makes a Comeback in Ukraine as War Halts Vaccination Campaign (TIME, 2022)
• How the U.S. Case Might Tie Into The Global Upswing in Polio (NPR, 2022)