The picornaviruses are a diverse group of viral pathogens that together comprise the most common causes of infection of humans in the developed world. Within the picornavirus family are three well-known groups of human pathogens--the rhinoviruses, the enteroviruses (including polioviruses, coxsackieviruses and echoviruses) and the hepatoviruses (including hepatitis A virus). This article will f...

Hopefully, we are now at the bitter end of global eradication of wild polioviruses, with annual cases of paralytic polio down globally from an estimated 350,000 in 1988 to under 2000 today.[1] Following successful eradication, we must choose wisely among the many policy options[2] that will determine our future risks, costs, and benefits.[3-8] But first, we need to complete polio eradication. W...

234 Implementation of New TB Screening Requirements for U.S.-Bound Immigrants and Refugees — 2007–2014 237 Combined Use of Inactivated and Oral Poliovirus Vaccines in Refugee Camps and Surrounding Communities — Kenya, December 2013 242 Update on Vaccine-Derived Polioviruses — Worldwide, July 2012–December 2013 249 Notes from the Field: A Cluster of Lymphocytic Choriomeningitis Virus Infections ...

In Finland, surveillance of potential re-emergence of poliovirus transmission is mainly based on environmental surveillance, i.e. search for infectious poliovirus in sewage samples. Since December 2008, 21 genetically highly divergent, neurovirulent vaccine-derived polioviruses (VDPV) have been isolated from sewage in Tampere, Finland. While the source of the VDPV is unknown, characteristics of...

In May 1988 the World Health Assembly adopted a resolution for the global eradication of poliomyelitis. Since then two target dates for eradication (2000 and 2003) have passed and the struggle to eradicate the poliovirus continues. Australia’s commitment to the worldwide campaign began in December 1994 with the designation of the National Poliovirus Reference Laboratory at the Victorian Infecti...

With national and global health policymakers facing numerous complex decisions related to achieving and maintaining polio eradication, we expanded our previously developed dynamic poliovirus transmission model using information from an expert literature review process and including additional immunity states and the evolution of oral poliovirus vaccine (OPV). The model explicitly considers sero...