PAHO Strategic Response Plan and Appeal: Polio

In May 2014, the WHO Director-General declared the international spread of poliovirus a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC) under the International Health Regulations (IHR 2005), issued Temporary Recommendations to reduce the international spread of poliovirus, and requested a reassessment of this situation by the Emergency Committee every three months. 

In October 2022, in its last meeting, the Committee unanimously agreed that the risk of the international spread of poliovirus remains a PHEIC and recommended the extension of Temporary Recommendations for a further three months. 

Since the certification of polio elimination in 1994, countries in the Americas have continued vaccination efforts and epidemiological surveillance of acute flaccid paralysis cases (AFP). However, with more than two years of the COVID-19 pandemic and the current PHEIC due to the multi-country outbreak of monkeypox (mpox), health systems face significant challenges, and the decline in vaccination coverage, which started before the COVID-19 pandemic, has been exacerbated.

This publication contains information on the response plan and financial appeal to respond to the emergency declared in relations to Polio.