Abstract

*1RUFARO MUREBWA CHIRAMBO, 2KUMAR SRIDUTT BABOO AND 3SETER SIZIYA

Acute Flaccid Paralysis (AFP) surveillance was adopted by World Health Organization (WHO) following the World Health Assembly (WHA) Resolutions in May 1988, to monitor progress towards poliomyelitis eradication in all member countries. It was introduced in Zambia in 1993, but active AFP surveillance started in 1998. Since then, health workers collect AFP surveillance data, but there is no documented evidence of the review of the performance of the system and epidemiological analysis of the data. A retrospective descriptive analysis was conducted on secondary AFP surveillance data for the period 2000- 2009, consisting of all children aged <15years and performance evaluated using WHO-specified core AFP global surveillance indicators. During this period, a total of 1,452 cases were investigated. Completeness of data from case-based forms was very inadequate. No wild polio viruses were detected in stool samples and the non-polio AFP rate ranged from 1.8 -3.3/100,000 and stool adequacy from 65% - 96%. There was low Non-Polio Entero virus (NPEV) rate. Although high level surveillance performance was achieved during this period, there were a lot of gaps in the national AFP surveillance data base. Addressing identified gaps could achieve optimal standards recommended by WHO and provide a good model for poliomyelitis eradication.