National Stop Transmission of Polio (NSTOP) initiative supporting polio eradication in Africa

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Polio is a crippling and potentially fatal infectious disease and is considered by the World Health Organization (WHO) to be a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC) with a target of eradication by 2015 and polio free certification date of 2018. There is no cure, but there are safe and effective vaccines. CDC Director Thomas Frieden, MD, MPH, has designated polio eradication an agency-wide priority through activation of the Emergency Operations Center (EOC) for the last 32 months for global polio response activities. The US congress has included a significant increase in polio funding for fiscal year 2014 with a mandate to work with all government and non-government partners to eradicate polio (Congressional committee records, 2013). CDC is one of five spearheading partners in the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI) providing technical and financial support to implement polio eradication activities globally. GPEI has four strategies to meet this target for polio eradication: routine immunization, supplementary immunization, acute flaccid paralysis (AFP) surveillance, and targeted “mop-up” campaigns.Although the entire African region is at risk, polio remains endemic in Nigeria and ongoing outbreaks have occurred in central and east African countries. Until polio transmission is interrupted in these countries, polio will remain a risk throughout the region and the world. This program will support the US Government endorsed GPEI and the Global Immunization Vision and Strategy, 2006-2015.As evidenced by recent outbreaks and WHO/CDC risk assessments (‘Assessing the Risks for Poliovirus Outbreaks’, MMWR, September 2013), public health workers at the local and national level in polio endemic Nigeria, polio outbreak countries in east and central African countries and other at-risk countries in the African region do not have the adequate expertise to conduct polio activities effectively for urgent and sustained polio eradication. There is a critical need to expand National Stop Transmission of Polio (NSTOP), a joint initiative with CDC and the Africa Field Epidemiology Network (AFENET) started in 2012. This program utilizes a field epidemiology training network to develop local workforce capacity to conduct polio eradication and immunization activities at the lowest level of government and within the community. The focus for these activities is Nigeria, east and central African countries and other at-risk countries in the African region.

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