Where We Work

Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI) partners work all across the globe to ensure no child is paralyzed by polio ever again.

Stopping all poliovirus

Today, the two countries of focus are Afghanistan and Pakistan as they have never stopped transmission of endemic wild poliovirus.  The countries are working to deliver vaccination services to their people, to carry out sensitive disease surveillance and to cooperate to immunize migrating populations across their common border. GPEI also supports countries that experience or are vulnerable to the rise of vaccine-derived polio viruses (VDPVs), which only occur when polio vaccination rates are low. When VDPV cases occur, high levels of vaccination, robust surveillance, and rapid outbreak response are critical.

Keeping the world safe

GPEI is also working to strengthen surveillance and immunization systems in the African and Eastern Mediterranean regions of the World Health Organization to ensure that polio has truly ended and immunity against the virus improves. In many countries of the world, surveillance against polio is maintained through the GPEI, and vaccination activities continue, to make sure children remain protected as long as there is polio anywhere.

The countries

Key at-risk: no longer poliovirus-infected, but at high risk of outbreaks
Outbreak: has stopped indigenous WPV circulation but affected by outbreak of imported WPV or circulating vaccine-derived poliovirus
Endemic: has never stopped indigenous wild poliovirus (WPV) circulation