Polio Research Today is a free monthly online journal that collates and summarizes the latest research about Polio, including details on symptoms, treatment, vaccines, causes, virus.

The polio eradication effort has been a great success--let's finish it and replace it with something even better.

Kimman TG, Boot H

Laboratory for Vaccine-Preventable Diseases, National Institute of Public Health and the Environment, Bilthoven, The Netherlands. tg.kimman@rivm.nl

The polio eradication campaign has greatly reduced the effects of this disease, but many new challenges have emerged. These challenges include the occurrence of polio outbreaks caused by wild-type polioviruses or circulating vaccine-derived polioviruses (cVDPVs) in areas where vaccination coverage is low, the existence of people who excrete poliovirus persistently, and the inability to know definitely that poliovirus has gone. As a result, there is uncertainty about if, when, and how we can end polio immunisation. In this article, we discuss several scenarios for the future of polio control. Because the emergence of cVDPVs necessitates discontinuing the use of live oral polio vaccine, we propose to strive towards a global coverage of near 100% vaccination against all major childhood infections using combination vaccines that contain inactivated poliovirus vaccine. Such a policy will present multiple challenges.

Published 29 September 2006 in Lancet Infect Dis, 6(10): 675-8.
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