The Global Polio Eradication Initiative is closer than ever to achieving a polio-free world. Immunization activities must still be carried out in non-endemic countries to maintain population immunity at levels which will stop poliovirus from spreading if it is re-introduced from still-infected areas. In areas where there is no active transmission of poliovirus, programs must rely on surrogate i...

Hundreds of thousands of Rotary volunteers have provided support for polio eradication activities and continue to this day by making financial contributions to the Rotary PolioPlus program, participating in national immunization days, assisting with surveillance, working on local, national, and international advocacy programs for polio eradication, assisting at immunization posts and clinics, a...

Since the introduction of vaccines against polio in the mid 1950s (Inactivated polio vaccine (IPV)) and the earl 1960s (Oral polio vaccine (OPV)), the control of polio has been successful. However, vaccine associated paralytic disease, which is caused by reversion of OPV, remains an unsolved issue in the present. Even though OPV has ability to induce a high level of intestinal immunity, it may ...

The research on post-polio syndrome in Amsterdam started in 1989 and was initiated by professor Marianne de Visser, neurologist. From that time on increasing numbers of Dutch patients with post-polio syndrome came to the AMC Amsterdam. Post-polio research has continued in Amsterdam, led by Marianne de Visser, Anita Beelen and Frans Nollet, resulting in 29 peer reviewed scientific papers up till...

In 1978 the Government of India decided to use oral polio vaccine (OPV) to control polio, occurring then at the average rate of 500 cases per day (2). The primary vaccination schedule was three doses in infancy. The prevailing popular belief (based on theory, not evidence) was that vaccine viruses would spread in the community, immunise unvaccinated children, induce high herd effect, and contro...

Worldwide efforts to eradicate polio caused a tipping point in polio vaccination strategies. A switch from the oral polio vaccine, which can cause circulating and virulent vaccine derived polioviruses, to inactivated polio vaccines (IPV) is scheduled. Moreover, a manufacturing process, using attenuated virus strains instead of wild-type polioviruses, is demanded to enhance worldwide production ...

Since the launch of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI) in 1988 the global incidence of poliomyelitis has fallen by nearly 99 %. From a situation where wild type poliovirus was endemic in 125 countries across five continents, transmission is now limited to regions of just three countries - Pakistan, Afghanistan and Nigeria. A sharp increase in Pakistan's poliomyelitis cases in 2014 p...

Global incidence of poliomyelitis has reduced by more than 99% since the Global Polio Eradication Initiative was launched in 1988 [1]. In par with the global trend, Sri Lanka has achieved great success with no reported cases since 1993, but still is not declared as a country which has eradicated polio due to prevalence of polioyomyelitis in neighbouring countries [2]. Countries which have eradi...

15 deceMBer 2009 | KABul A new vaccine against polio will be used for the first time today in polio immunization campaigns in Afghanistan. The bivalent oral polio vaccine (bOPV), recommended by the Advisory Committee on Poliomyelitis Eradication, the global technical advisory body of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative as a critical tool to eradicate polio, can provide the optimal concurren...

declared the second-ever public health emergency of international concern. Polio is the emergency – a disease again posing a public health risk to countries around the world and requiring a coordinated international response. 1 For some, this declaration seemed a paradox. Polio is nearly eradicated. The virus that once paralysed over 1000 children a day in more than 125 countries paralysed just...