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Poliomyelitis in Afghanistan (Update)

10 Feb 2017

One new wild poliovirus type 1 (WPV1) case was reported in the past week, with onset of paralysis on 13 January, from Kandahar. It is the first reported case for calendar year 2017. The total number of WPV1 cases for 2016 remains 13. More than half of the 2016 cases are from Bermal district, Paktika.

Advice for Travellers

Travellers are encouraged to take strict precautions with food, water and personal hygiene.

In addition, in order to comply with the WHO and ECDC recommendations and also to avoid travellers being vaccinated in the polio-infected country, authorities in the UK have made specific vaccination recommendations.

Please refer to individual country records for further information.

In England, Public Health England and NaTHNaC have issued advice which is different to that in Scotland (please look at Travel Health Pro Clinical Updates for full details).