Addis Ababa, 19, September 2018: Four countries from the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) signed a communique on polio eradication in Garissa, Kenya on 14th September 2018. The communique underscored the need to combine and strengthen the effort of Horn of Africa countries currently responding to an outbreak of poliovirus detected in environmental surveillance and human case samples from Somalia and Kenya. The polio outbreak has been classified as a Grade 2 Public Health Emergency of International Concern. The detection of poliovirus in these two IGAD countries leaves the remaining five IGAD member states (Ethiopia, South Sudan, Sudan, Uganda and Djibouti) at high risk for similar outbreaks due to population movement.
