Project profile — Improving Surveillance to End Polio Transmission

• Pakistan (100.00%)

• Basic Health: Infectious disease control (12250) (100.00%)

• Gender equality (not targeted)
• Environmental sustainability (cross-cutting) (not targeted)
• Participatory development and good governance (not targeted)
• Trade development (not targeted)
• Biodiversity (not targeted)
• Climate change mitigation (not targeted)
• Climate Change Adaptation (not targeted)
• Urban issues (not targeted)
• Desertification (not targeted)
• Children's issues (principal objective)
• Youth Issues (not targeted)
• Indigenous Issues (not targeted)
• Disability (not targeted)
• ICT as a tool for development (not targeted)

The overall goal of this project is to stop the spread of polio virus in Pakistan, where the vast majority of the remaining cases of polio occur. It is implemented by the World Health Organization, which, along with the Government of Pakistan and UNICEF, spearheads the Pakistan Polio Eradication Initiative. This initiative works across Pakistan to improve detection and tracking of polio, improve monitoring of all polio eradication activities and enhance vaccination checkpoints, which vaccinate people travelling between districts, provinces and at international boundaries. In addition to national level efforts, the project works in Balochistan and Sindh provinces to scale up an innovative approach called Continuous Community Protected Vaccination, which hires community vaccinators living in areas at high risk of contracting polio to vaccinate children and identify those missed by immunization drives.

The expected intermediate outcomes for this project include: (1) increased population immunity to sufficient levels to interrupt transmission of polioviruses; and (2) surveillance system with capacity to detect all potential polioviruses.

Results achieved as of the end of the project (December 2018) include: (1) reduced number of missed and under-vaccinated girls and boys in the provinces of Balochistan and Sindh; (2) reduced number of polio cases by 97.39% as compared to 2014; (3) enhanced and accelerated verification of the coverage and quality of supplementary immunization nationally; (4) increased immunity against the poliovirus in mobile and high-risk populations nationally; (5) improved processes for polio surveillance nationally; and (6) improved performance of the Regional Reference Laboratory in Pakistan.

• Proactive disclosure