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The article discusses challenges faced by a global initiative to eradicate polio, led by the World Health Organization, as cases surge in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Africa. Topics include the tendency for many children to miss vaccinations in Pakistan and Afghanistan due to fear among the poor and ongoing conflict in which the Taliban have banned vaccinations, an outbreak of vaccine-derived viruses circulating in Africa, and development of a genetically engineered OPV2 vaccine to reduce chances of reversion.

The article discusses the impacts of polio outbreaks derived from vaccines in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). Topics include the relation of the virus from the oral polio vaccine (OPV) to polio eradication efforts, the spread of circulating vaccine-derived polioviruses (cVDPVs), and vaccination campaigns in various areas of the DRC.

The article discusses studies within the issue by Nicholas Grassly and Hamid Jafari and the July 11, 2014 online edition of "The Lancet" journal by Jacob John and colleagues that shows a combined vaccine strategy of inactivated polio vaccine (IPV) and oral polio vaccine (OPV) in children in India can be effective at preventing polio transmission. The expanded role of IPV in the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI) and Kenya's combined polio vaccine 2013 strategy are discussed.

The reports on the attacks on workers from the World Health Organization (WHO) Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI) in Karachi and Peshawar, Pakistan, in which sixteen aid workers were killed between December 17, 2012 and January 1, 2013. The GPEI program has been temporarily halted in the country, although the Pakistan government released a statement in favor of the polio vaccination program. Some public health leaders attribute the violence to groups hostile to women's education and other services. Also discussed is the potential impact of the suspension of the program on the spread of polio in Pakistan.

This article discusses poliovirus eradication efforts by the World Health Organization (WHO) in the town of Gadap in Karachi, Pakistan. Topics include the town's position as a central hub for spreading outbreaks due to its location along a transmission zone that migrants use to flee violence in tribal areas of the country, the attacks on WHO polio vaccine campaign workers, and the efforts of Ethiopian-born WHO epidemiologist Elias Durry in Pakistan throughout 2011.

The article reports that the World Health Organization (WHO) declared on May 5, 2014 that the spread of wild polio virus is a public health emergency of international concern, issuing travel recommendations for Pakistan, Cameroon, and Syria, which pose the greatest risk of further spread.