Greetings Polio Warriors:

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Please note that this week’s newsletter updates our numbers for the last two weeks as there was no newsletter published last week.

WILD POLIO VIRUS, TYPE 1 (WPV1) - NO NEW CASES of Wild Polio Virus Type 1 anywhere in the world for the last 13 weeks.

NINETY - The number of days since the last case of WPV1 occurred in Pakistan (September 15th).
ONE HUNDRED & SIX - The number of days since the last case of WPV1 occurred in Afghanistan (August 29th).

ONE HUNDRED & TWENTY-SIX - The number of days since the last case of WPV1 occurred in Mozambique (August 10th).
THREE HUNDRED AND NINETY — (ONE YEAR +) - The number of days since the last case of WPV1 occurred in Malawi (November 19th, 2021).

THIRTY - The total number of cases of WPV1 that have occurred in 2022 year-to- date (2 in Afghanistan, 8 in Mozambique and 20 in Pakistan).
SIX - The total number of cases of WPV1 that occurred in 2021 (1 in Pakistan, 1 in Malawi and 4 in Afghanistan).

ONE HUNDRED AND FORTY - The total number of cases of WPV1 that occurred in 2020.
ONE HUNDRED AND SEVENTY-SIX - The total number of cases of WPV1 that occurred in 2019.

During the last two weeks, however, another 8 new Wild Positive Environmental Samples were collected, 4 in Afghanistan and 4 in Pakistan. This brings the total count of Positive Wild Environmental Samples, year to date to 57, 40 in Pakistan and 17 in Afghanistan.

CIRCULATING VACCINE-DERIVED POLIO - On our other battlefront in the war on polio, the circulating Vaccine-Derived Polio, there were 31 new cases the last two weeks, compared to 6 reported the prior week. This brings year to date case totals

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to 559, compared to 485 a year ago at this time. DR Congo remains our biggest problem, with 258 cases representing 46% of the total 559 worldwide. WHO reports that outbreak responses to both the cVDPV1 and cVDPV2 continue to be intensified in that country.

And finally, there were 23 Positive Vaccine Derived Environmental Samples Type 2 (ES) reported the last two weeks. That brings the total number of Positive Vaccine Derived Environmental Samples (ES) to 286 for the year.

• 2022 MAY WELL GO DOWN
IN HISTORY AS THE YEAR
OF CONTRASTS IN POLIO
ERADICATION. At first glance,
with polio detections in places
such as New York and London
and an increase in cases in
Pakistan, it may seem that the
effort is backsliding. But
according to GPEI, a deeper
analysis reveals a more
encouraging story. 2022 saw
perhaps some of the most
significant progress in the
program’s history, and has set
up the global polio effort for a
unique opportunity to achieve success in 2023. For a detailed analysis of the above, click here for the full story from the GPEI website.

• NEW YORK IS NOT OUT OF THE WOODS YET...According to a December 10th article in “Precision Vaccinations”, an online website, a sequencing analysis performed on December 5th by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recently confirmed the presence of the poliovirus in a total of 94 positive wastewater samples of concern collected in New York as recently as October.

Of the 94 positive samples, 87 were genetically linked to the Rockland County resident confirmed with polio (Acute Flaccid Paralysis) this last summer. The other 7 samples were collected from wastewater in new York City and Orange County.

The New York State Department of Health (NYSDOH) points out that these polioviruses could cause illness, including paralysis, if they were to infect an unvaccinated individual. However, they also emphasize that since these samples came from wastewater (sewage samples), they have not contaminated drinking

Afghan kids show off their inked fingers, a sign they have been vaccinated against polio.

water (tap water), streams or lakes. To read the full story, which also includes a link to the NYSDOH website with complete details, click here.