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Poliomyelitis in Afghanistan (Update)

31 March 2017

One new wild poliovirus type 1 (WPV1) case was reported in the past week, from Kunduz province, with onset of paralysis on 21 February. It is the most recent case in the country, and brings the total number of WPV1 cases for 2017 to three. For 2016, the case count remains 13.

One new WPV1 environmental positive sample was reported in the past week, from Kandahar, collected on 26 January 2017.

(Via Global Polio Eradication InitiativeLink - accessed 31/03/17)

Advice for Travellers

Travellers should be encouraged to take strict precautions with food, water and personal hygiene.

In addition, in order to comply with the WHO and ECDC recommendations and also to avoid travellers being vaccinated in the polio-infected country, authorities in the UK have made the following vaccination recommendations.

In Scotland, Health Protection Scotland (HPS) advise:

  • Travellers should receive a booster dose of a polio-containing vaccine if they have not had one in the past 12 months and are visiting one of the polio-infected or exporting countries (listed above) for longer than 4 weeks (this advice supersedes the current advice in the Green Book).
  • Travellers should acquire this additional dose within 12 months of the date they plan to leave the polio-infected country.
  • Travellers visiting one of these countries for less than 4 weeks should ensure they are up-to-date with routine polio vaccination, including 10 yearly boosters.
  • Travellers should carry proof of vaccination. In particular, for Pakistan this should be documented on the standard International Certificate of Vaccination or Prophylaxis (ICVP). The ICVP is the 'Yellow Card' normally used for yellow fever vaccination.
  • In Scotland, paper ICVP’s can be obtained from HPS by contacting TRAVAX administration, email your FULL NAME and FULL POSTAL ADDRESS to: NSS.HPSTravax@nhs.net electronic copies can be downloaded from WHO

In England, Public Health England and NaTHNaC have issued advice which is different to that in Scotland (please look at Travel Health Pro Clinical updates for full details).