The global eradication of polio is close to achieving success. However, transmission of wild poliovirus persists in countries where the disease is endemic, and outbreaks may also occur in previously polio-free countries where population immunity is not maintained. To achieve polio eradication, several key actions are required: (1) to detect any poliovirus transmission, (2) to strengthen immuniz...

Polio eradication requires the removal of all polioviruses from human populations, whether wild poliovirus or those emanating from the oral poliovirus vaccine (OPV). The Polio Eradication & Endgame Strategic Plan 2013-2018 provides a framework for interruption of wild poliovirus transmission in remaining endemic foci and lays out a plan for the new polio end game, which includes the withdrawal ...

BACKGROUND After more than 10 years without a case of wild poliovirus (WPV) in China, an outbreak occurred in 2011 in Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region. METHODS Acute flaccid paralysis (AFP) case surveillance was strengthened with epidemiological investigations and specimen collection and serological surveys were conducted among hospitalized patients. RESULTS There were 21 WPV cases and 23 ...

The availability and use of high quality immunization and surveillance data are crucial for monitoring all components of the Global Polio Eradication Program (GPEI). The Stop Transmission of Polio (STOP) program was initiated in 1999 to train and mobilize human resources to provide technical support to polio endemic and at-risk countries and in 2002 the STOP data management (STOP DM) deployment...

To achieve poliomyelitis eradication, the World Health Organization recommends that countries conduct surveillance for cases of acute flaccid paralysis (AFP). Acute flaccid paralysis (AFP) is defined as a sudden onset of paralysis/weakness in any part of the body of a child less than 15 years of age. This syndromic reporting strategy, of investigating all AFP cases rather than just “suspected p...

Poliomyelitis is a disease which began to appear in epidemic proportions in the late 19th century, paradoxically, just at the time when living conditions and developments in health were transforming enormously for the better. We present a simple age-class model that explains this "disease of development" as a threshold phenomenon. Epidemics arise when improved conditions in hygiene are able to ...

The global polio eradication program, started in 1988, initially targeted the year 2000 for the worldwide elimination of the disease. Although poliovirus transmission has been markedly reduced, it has not been eliminated. As we enter the 20th year of the campaign, poliovirus continues to infect and cause paralysis in localized areas of South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa. To combat this scourge, ...

Introduction Poliomyelitis a disease targeted for eradication since 19881 still pose public health challenge. The Eastern Mediterranean and African Regions out of the six World Health Organization (WHO) Regions are yet to be certified polio free2. The certification of the WHO Africa region is largely dependent on Nigeria, while the WHO Eastern Mediterranean is dependent on Pakistan and Afghanis...

vaccines to prevent poliomyelitis have been available for 48 years, paralytic disease continues to occur in some areas, as reported by Kohler et al. 1 elsewhere in this issue of the International Journal of Epidemiology. Let us hope that by the 50th anniversary of the development of the first successful polio-myelitis vaccine all transmission of wild-type polioviruses will have ceased. The Worl...