1 week Ago By Apoorva Mandavilli
In 2016, the global health authorities removed a type of poliovirus from the oral vaccine. The virus caused a growing number of outbreaks and has now arrived in Gaza. The poliovirus that paralysed a child in the Gaza Strip , the first case in the region in 25 years, has travelled a long path.
It most likely arose in Nigeria and made its way to Chad, where it was first detected in 2019, according to genetic analysis. It emerged in Sudan in 2020 and then found a foothold in Egypt, in unvaccinated pockets of Luxor and North Sinai – next door to Gaza. This journey was the consequence of a fateful decision by global health organisations to pare down the oral polio vaccine in 2016.
The move, now called “the switch,” was intended to help eradicate the disease. Instead, the change has led to outbreaks of polio in dozens of countries and has paralysed more than 3300 children. A formal evaluation, commissioned by the global polio eradication programme and led by two independent experts, was unflinching in its assessment: “The switch was an unqualified failure.
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