WHO declares end of polio outbreak after yearslong vaccination

The World Health Orga­ni­zation (WHO) has declared Indonesia’s polio outbreak officially over, ­following nearly three years of intensive response efforts, officials said.

Indonesia has remained largely polio-free as the highly-contagious disease was declared eliminated in the country in 2014. But eight years later, an outbreak emerged in the country’s conser­vative Aceh province, prompted by a dangerous combination of consistently low routine immunisation and unhealthy environmental conditions. In 2021, only 50.9% of infants born in Aceh received polio vaccination.