Covid, flu: WHO calls on Europe not to lower its guard

With the arrival of winter, the WHO stressed on Monday the need not to lower our guard at a time when cases of Covid and flu are increasing in Europe, citing the example of polio to justify the usefulness of vaccination. “Now is not the time to slack off,” the World Health Organization’s regional director for Europe, Hans Kluge, told an online news conference.

In early autumn, the European region, which includes 53 countries, including some from Central Asia, was once again the epicenter of the epidemic, accounting for 60% of new Covid cases worldwide. At the same time, a spike in seasonal flu cases was recorded. With this new wave of Covid, deaths and admissions to intensive care are only slightly increasing, the WHO underlined, emphasizing the link with vaccination. “Vaccination remains one of our most effective tools against influenza and Covid 19,” he said on World Polio Day.

Polio “a very good barometer”

This disease, which mainly affects children and causes paralysis, has practically disappeared in the Western world, but a variant of the poliovirus derived from oral vaccines has recently been detected in the United Kingdom, Ukraine, Israel and New York. Less virulent than the natural virus, this variant can nevertheless cause severe symptoms, such as paralysis of the limbs in unvaccinated patients. Rare, this variant has become more common in recent years due to low vaccination rates in some communities.

“All over the world, if we leave people behind, the polio virus is a very good barometer to tell us who they are,” said WHO Europe expert Siddhartha Datta. “These are underserved population groups because, for one reason or another, they have not been covered by the WHO recommendation of 95% coverage (vaccination).” No case of wild polio virus has been reported in Europe for more than twenty years. “It is not something we can take for granted,” stressed Hans Kluge.

Across the region, coverage with the third dose of polio vaccine decreased by 1% between 2019 and 2020. By 2021, only 25 of 53 countries had achieved 95% polio vaccination coverage.