The recorded incidence of wild polio virus in the DRC increased by more than 740 percent last year compared with 1999, according to a report released by the WHO on polio surveillance in emergency-affected countries. There were 334 confirmed cases of wild polio virus in the DRC in the year 2000, up from 45 in 1999, it stated. The establishment of a high-quality, functioning acute flaccid paralysis (AFP) surveillance system was a critical step in polio elimination, and the experience of Afghanistan, Angola and Somalia showed that this could be achieved even in countries affected by conflict, it added. Two rounds of National Immunisation Days (NIDs) are planned for July and August 2001 as part of the continuing Global Polio Eradication Initiative.
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