Appropriate response to polio outbreaks represents an important prerequisite for achieving and maintaining global polio eradication. We use an existing dynamic disease transmission model to evaluate the impact of different aspects of immunization campaigns in response to polio outbreaks occurring in previously polio-free areas. This analysis yields several important insights about response stra...

The World Health Organization declared India among other 10 countries in South East Region - as 'polio-free' in 2014. Since then, the Government of India (GoI) has scaled up its initiatives against polio endgame which targets virus eradication and sequential withdrawal of type 2 virus from oral polio vaccine (OPV). However, prior to choosing the switch from trivalent OPV (t-OPV) to bivalent OPV...

OBJECTIVE IgG and IgA immunocompetence of children with wild poliovirus poliomyelitis and non-polio acute flaccid paralysis. METHODS 932 cases of acute flaccid paralysis, reported in 2008-2009, were tested for presence of polio and non-polio enteroviruses according to the WHO standards. Serum IgA and IgG levels were determined by sandwich ELISA. RESULTS Mean (SD) IgA levels [0.87 (0.62)g/L;...

Page 1 of 5 Pakistan, politics and polio Sania Nishtar a Heartfile, 1 Park Road, Chak Shahzad, Islamabad, 44000, Pakistan. Correspondence to Sania Nishtar (e-mail: [email protected]). (Submitted: 7 April 2009 – Revised version received: 30 June 2009 – Accepted: 16 July 2009 – Published online: 8 December 2009) The United Nations Secretary General’s concern over the recent resurgence of polio ...

Poliomyelitis is one of few diseases that can be eradicated. The virus cannot survive outside the body and effective vaccine is available to protect children and stop transmission. Today, there are 3 million children each year saved by the oral polio vaccine (OPV) and globally the reported cases have declined from 50,000 to 7,000 in 1999. At present, 20 countries may remain at risk of continued...

(WHO) is contemplating discontinuing the use of an oral polio vaccine that’s been linked to ongoing outbreaks of the virus in the developing world. WHO is weighing the possibility of using a different formulation of the vaccine, but maintains that patchy implementation of immunization programs, not the vaccine itself, is to blame for the outbreaks. Since 2000, some two billion children have rec...

In 1988, the World Health Assembly launched the Global Polio Eradication Initiative, which aimed to use large-scale vaccination with the oral vaccine to eradicate polio worldwide by the year 2000. Although important progress has been made, polio remains endemic in several countries. Also, the current control measures will likely be inadequate to deal with problems that may arise in the postpoli...

Because of the broadened acute flacid paralysis (AFP) definition and enhanced surveillance, many nonpolio AFP (NP-AFP) cases have been reported in India since 2005. To determine the spectrum of nonpolio enterovirus (NPEV) serotypes associated with NP-AFP from polio-endemic and -free regions, we studied antigenic diversity of AFP-associated NPEVs. Of fecal specimens from 2,786 children with NP-A...

The successful fund raising appeals of the March of Dimes employed images of cute crippled children standing on braces and forearm crutches, sitting in wheelchairs, or confined to iron lungs. Those who had to use these devices as a result of polio, however, were often stigmatized as cripples. American cultural antipathy to these assistive devices meant that polio survivors often had to overcome...

OBJECTIVE To examine the correlation between obesity and pulmonary function in polio survivors. METHODS This study was conducted based on a questionnaire survey and physical examination. The questionnaire included gender, age, paralyzed regions, physical activity levels, and accompanying diseases. The physical examination included measuring body mass index, waist circumference, muscle power, ...