Global Polio Eradication programme
Published 8 April 2025
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In 1988 the World Health Assembly passed a resolution to eradicate polio. The Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI), along with its partners, has supported countries to roll out highly effective polio vaccines and make huge progress in protecting the global population from this debilitating disease. As a result, the global incidence of polio has decreased by 99.9%. An estimated 20 million people today are walking who would otherwise have been paralysed by the disease, and more than 1.5 million people are alive, whose lives would otherwise have been lost.
The last case of wild polio contracted in the UK was confirmed in 1984. The UK was declared polio-free in 2003. Of the 3 serotypes of wild poliovirus (type 1, type 2 and type 3), wild poliovirus type 2 was eradicated in 1999 and wild poliovirus type 3 was eradicated in 2020. Endemic wild poliovirus type 1 remains in 2 countries: Pakistan and Afghanistan.
The GPEI Polio Eradication Strategy 2022 to 2026 sets out the pathway for a polio-free world. Despite the significant progress made, until polio is eradicated globally, the risk of the virus being reintroduced into Europe, including the UK, remains.
The World Health Organization (WHO) polio Post-Certification Strategy defines the global technical standards or core set of activities that are needed in order to sustain a polio-free world after global certification of wild poliovirus eradication. It covers areas such as poliovirus containment, for example, to ensure that potential laboratory sources of poliovirus are contained or removed appropriately. It also covers the requirement for countries to continue to have robust surveillance to promptly detect any poliovirus in a human or in the environment and rapidly respond to prevent transmission.
As part of the UK government’s ongoing commitment to Global Polio Eradication, the National Authority for Containment (NAC) was formally appointed by the Department for Health and Social Care (DHSC) in July 2022. See UK NAC for more details. The NAC has commissioned the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) to undertake a survey of which facilities are storing or working with poliovirus infectious material (IM) or potentially infectious materials (PIM). The last survey was carried out in 2001 to 2002. Such surveys form a critical step in the process of identifying where poliovirus is currently stored, and whether it is being handled appropriately. As well as recording the specialised laboratories that knowingly store polioviruses, it is important to know if there are facilities that may unwittingly store poliovirus PIM (termed non-poliovirus facilities in this document).
In addition, the UKHSA, working in collaboration with the WHO Polio Global Specialised Laboratory at the MHRA and NHS Lothian, undertakes routine environmental surveillance for poliovirus in England. Further information is available on environmental surveillance.