Manila, 2 December 2005— The World Health Organization has warned that Asia faces the threat of the return of poliomyelitis as long as the virus is still present in some parts of the world.
Addressing a session of the Regional Commission for the Certification of Poliomyelitis Eradication (RCC) in Manila, Dr Shigeru Omi, Regional Director for the Western Pacific, said: "We cannot let our guard down as recent outbreaks in previously polio-free countries such as Indonesia and Yemen have demonstrated that in the right conditions, wild poliovirus can rapidly spread and paralyze large numbers of children."
From the beginning of 2004 to date, such importations of the virus occurred in 18 previously polio-free countries worldwide . "The recent outbreak in Indonesia has brought the spectre of the disease back to the Region," Dr Omi said.
The RCC meets every year to review what Member States in the Western Pacific are doing to maintain polio-free status, including quality surveillance and immunization services, and to monitor progress with laboratory containment of wild polioviruses.
Maintaining polio-free status also involves accurate and updated national inventories of wild poliovirus and/or potentially infectious materials still retained in laboratories to ensure that they are safely stored under required bio-safety conditions. For this reason, the RCC meeting, from 3 to 7 December, is being held in conjunction with a meeting on laboratory containment of wild polioviruses in the Western Pacific Region.