Poliovirus excretion among children with primary immune deficiency in Pakistan: a pilot surveillance study protocol.

Introduction: Children with primary immunodeficiency disorders (PID) are more susceptible to developing viral infections and are at a substantially increased risk of developing paralytic poliomyelitis. Such children, if given oral polio vaccines tend to excrete poliovirus chronically that may lead to the propagation of highly divergent vaccine-derived poliovirus (VDPV). Consequently, they may act as a reservoir for the community by introducing an altered virus potentially imposing a risk to global polio eradication.

Progress Toward Poliomyelitis Eradication - Pakistan, January 2019-September 2020.

Pakistan and Afghanistan are the only countries where wild poliovirus type 1 (WPV1) is endemic (1,2). In 2019, Pakistan reported 147 WPV1 cases, approximately 12 times the number reported in 2018. As of September 15, 72 cases had been reported in 2020.