Belgium, (Brussels Morning Newspaper) European Commission officials marked World Polio Day, stressing the importance of eradicating the disease.
Stella Kyriakides, European Commissioner for Health and Food Safety, Jutta Urpilainen, European Commissioner for International Partnerships and Andrea Ammon, Director of the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control, issued a joint statement.
They pointed out that polio is still an international health threat and added that the EU has been polio-free for two decades or so thanks to vaccines.
“But the recent discovery of vaccine derived poliovirus and a case of paralytic polio in Europe and the United States are stark reminders that we must remain vigilant,” they stressed in a statement released on Sunday.
“As long as non-vaccinated or under-vaccinated population groups in European countries remain, we run the risk that the virus will reappear in Europe,” the three officials stated.
They reminded that polio can have severe health consequences, stressing the importance of maintaining high vaccination rates on bloc level and increasing rates in “pockets of under-immunised populations.”
Importance of polio vaccines
“The COVID-19 pandemic has taken a toll on our health prevention routines… coupled with mis- and disinformation on the importance of vaccination, many children have unfortunately missed out on life-saving vaccination,” they warned in the statement.
The three officials called on EU member states to review vaccine coverage and “address any immunity gaps in their population,” as well as “ensure that surveillance systems are in place to identify virus circulation.”
Kyriakides, Urpilainen and Ammon stressed the importance of continuing to stamp out polio on the global level, reminding that the disease is still endemic to Afghanistan and Pakistan.
They pointed out that the EC is backing international efforts to eradicate polio by supporting vaccination. “In the last years, the EU has mobilised 110 million euro to fight polio in most affected countries, including Afghanistan, and in cooperation with international partners” including the WHO, UNICEF and Gavi.
The three officials stated that “until polio is eradicated worldwide, no one is safe.”
“On this World Polio Day, we call on everyone who is not vaccinated, or whose children have missed their scheduled vaccinations, to seek immunisation as soon as possible,” they concluded.
