Wild poliovirus has not been eradicated globally. The Global Polio Eradication Initiative says types 2 and 3 have been declared eradicated, while type 1 remains. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention identifies Afghanistan and Pakistan as the countries where wild polio remains endemic. GPEI status CDC overview
Wild poliovirus type 2 was declared eradicated in 2015, and type 3 in 2019. These are important milestones for individual virus types, but they cannot be extended to type 1 or treated as an end to every polio-related public-health risk.
CDC describes its work on polio as part of a long-running international eradication effort. Vaccination and surveillance remain central to that work. A report about eradication status needs to identify the virus type and the location, rather than treating the word polio as a single measure that has been resolved everywhere.
WHO’s emergency-committee statements provide an additional route for following the international assessment of transmission risks. The continued attention to type 1 transmission is inconsistent with an announcement that all wild poliovirus has disappeared. Statements about new declarations should be checked against the responsible public-health bodies and their dates.
Archive note: the earlier global-eradication declaration and attributed remarks were not substantiated.