In a Perspective linked to the research article by Isobel Blake and colleagues, Elizabeth Miller and T. Jacob John discuss the path towards global polio eradication and the challenges, strategies, and necessary precautions around oral polio vaccine cessation.

Dora Vargha’s history of Hungary’s fight against polio in the 1950s combines social, cultural, and political to demonstrate how Cold War politics were central this story. She also challenges generally held perceptions iron curtain as impenetrable demonstrates, at least case polio, that border between east west was much more porous than thought. By highlighting contradictions, such global accept...

BACKGROUND Many Polio survivors have reduced mobility, pain and fatigue, which make access to conventional forms of aerobic exercise difficult. Inactivity leads to increased risk of health problems, many of which are prevalent among Polio survivors. Aerobic exercise programmes in Polio survivors should utilise stable muscle groups and should be designed to minimise exacerbation of pain and fati...

Despite remarkable progression toward polio eradication worldwide, wild poliovirus (WPV) importation has been a great challenge for China, as it shares borders with countries where WPV is endemic. The objective of this study was to estimate poliovirus antibody seroprevalence among children <15 years of age in 3 border provinces (Yunnan Province, Tibet Autonomous Region, and Xinjiang Uygur Auton...

Some of their observations are correct, but some observations need clarification, while some issues have been left out in the editorial. Their observations suggest inadequate vaccine coverage and non-vaccination are reasons for increase in number of polio cases in the year 2002. The authors had also indicated that OPV vaccine has not made much impact. In case OPV vaccine had made any major impa...

The WHO European Region has been polio-free since 2002, while in the Eastern Mediterranean Region, Pakistan and Afghanistan are the remaining endemic countries, where polio circulation has never been interrupted. Recent outbreaks of cases due to Wild Polio Virus (WPV) type 1 have been reported in Somalia and Yemen [1]. In the WHO African Region, Nigeria is the only polio endemic country [2]. Un...

We studied the interactions of hepatitis B vaccine with other vaccines used in the World Health Organization expanded programs of immunization. Three groups of Senegalese children were vaccinated with hepatitis B vaccine (HB) alone, diphtheria-tetanus-pertussis (DTP)-polio vaccine alone, or a combination of hepatitis B vaccine and DTP-polio vaccines simultaneously. The immune responses to HBsAg...

The goal of polio eradication in the Western Pacific Region is within reach. The last case of polio seen in the region occurred in Cambodia in March 1997 and the region aims to be certified polio-free by the World Health Organization (WHO) in the year 2000. The Global Commission for Certification of Eradication of Poliomyelitis has specified three criteria to be fulfilled by countries in order ...

This study evaluated the seroprevalence of poliovirus types 1, 2 and 3 antibodies and vaccination coverage in 780 subjects aged between 7 months and 39 years in Montevideo, Uruguay, where oral polio vaccine (OPV) is used. Antibody titers were measured and seroprotection rates and geometric mean titers (GMTs) were compared among four age groups. Vaccination histories were recorded from documents...

India is committed to eradication of poliomyelitis by the year 2000. However, India still reported about 58% of all polio cases documented globally in 1995. India has adopted the World Health Organisation’s recommended strategy of National Immunization Days (that is, Pulse Polio Immunization) from the year 1995. Oral polio vaccine (OPV) was introduced at national level in 1985. However, no comm...