Brazzaville — The independent Africa Regional Certification Commission (ARCC), responsible for certifying the eradication of wild poliovirus in the World Health Organization (WHO) African Region, is set to make its final decision about the region's wild poliovirus status in August 2020.
In August 2019, the African Region became eligible to be certified free of wild poliovirus, after Nigeria, the last wild poliovirus endemic country, recorded no new cases three years - the requisite period - since it last reported cases of wild poliovirus.
We are reviewing updated reports from the other 43 countries in the WHO African Region and we anticipate that by August 2020, we will deliver our final decision on the region's certification status of wild poliovirus eradication," said Professor Rose Leke, ARCC Chairperson.
"This achievement by Cameroon, Central African Republic, Nigeria and South Sudan is a major step towards the eradication of wild poliovirus in the African region," said Dr Matshidiso Moeti, WHO Regional Director for Africa.
The polio eradication programme in the African Region, in addition to its support to the COVID-19 response, is working with countries to ensure the continuity of essential disease surveillance activities as well as planning the resumption of immunization and outbreak response in compliance with the guidance to stop COVID-19 transmission.
