Stopping a polio outbreak in the midst of war: Lessons from Syria

Outbreaks of circulating vaccine-derived polioviruses (cVDPVs) pose a threat to the eventual eradication of all polioviruses. In 2017, an outbreak of cVDPV type 2 (cVDPV2) occurred in the midst of a war in Syria. We describe vaccination-based risk factors for and the successful response to the outbr...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Vaccine 2021-06, Vol.39 (28), p.3717-3723
Main Authors: Mbaeyi, Chukwuma, Moran, Thomas, Wadood, Zubair, Ather, Fazal, Sykes, Emma, Nikulin, Joanna, Al Safadi, Mohammad, Stehling-Ariza, Tasha, Zomahoun, Laurel, Ismaili, Abdelkarim, Abourshaid, Nidal, Asghar, Humayun, Korukluoglu, Gulay, Duizer, Erwin, Ehrhardt, Derek, Burns, Cara C., Sharaf, Magdi
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Age
Child
Children
Civil war
Conflict
Disease
Disease Outbreaks
Epidemics
Epidemiology
Humans
Investigations
Laboratories
Multiple births
Oral poliovirus vaccine
Outbreaks
Paralysis
Polio
Poliomyelitis
Poliomyelitis - epidemiology
Poliomyelitis - prevention & control
Poliovirus
Poliovirus Vaccine, Oral
Risk analysis
Risk factors
Surveillance
Syria
Syria - epidemiology
Vaccination
Vaccine-derived polioviruses
Vaccines
Viruses
War
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Outbreaks of circulating vaccine-derived polioviruses (cVDPVs) pose a threat to the eventual eradication of all polioviruses. In 2017, an outbreak of cVDPV type 2 (cVDPV2) occurred in the midst of a war in Syria. We describe vaccination-based risk factors for and the successful response to the outbreak. We performed a descriptive analysis of cVDPV2 cases and key indicators of poliovirus surveillance and vaccination activities during 2016–2018. In the absence of reliable subnational coverage data, we used the caregiver-reported vaccination status of children with non-polio acute flaccid paralysis (AFP) as a proxy for vaccination coverage. We then estimated the relative odds of being unvaccinated against polio, comparing children in areas affected by the outbreak to children in other parts of Syria in order to establish the presence of poliovirus immunity gaps in outbreak affected areas. A total of 74 cVDPV2 cases were reported, with paralysis onset ranging from 3 March to 21 September 2017. All but three cases were reported from Deir-ez-Zor governorate and 84% had received 
ISSN:0264-410X
1873-2518
DOI:10.1016/j.vaccine.2021.05.045