Annual report Australian National Poliovirus Reference Laboratory , 2005 Annual report of the Australian National Poliovirus Reference Laboratory 2005

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 Infectious Diseases Reference Laboratory and the initiation of acute fl accid paralysis (AFP) surveillance in March 1995. During 2005 the National Poliovirus Reference Laboratory did not isolate any wild or vaccine derived polioviruses from the 42 samples collected from eighteen cases of acute fl accid paralysis in Australian residents. Three Sabin–like polioviruses were isolated from three cases of acute fl accid paralysis but all were considered incidental isolations by the Polio Expert Committee and not implicated in the disease of the patients. After exceeding the World Health Organization target of one case of AFP per 100,000 children aged less than 15 years in 2004, Australia’s non-polio AFP rate in 2005 fell to 0.75 cases per 100,000 children. The high number of wild poliovirus importations reported globally in 2005 into previously polio free countries, highlights the need for a sensitive AFP surveillance system within Australia and for specimens from AFP cases to be forwarded to the National Poliovirus Reference Laboratory. Commun Dis Intell 2006;30:334–340.