The current understanding of the function of CD4+ T helper (Th) cells in immunity to infectious diseases is that Th1 cells, which secrete interleukin (IL)-2 and interferon-gamma, induce cellular immune responses, whereas Th2 cells, which secrete IL-4, IL-5, IL-6, and IL-10, provide helper function for humoral immunity. We have used a panel of poliovirus-specific murine CD4+ T cell clones and mi...

Drugs such as WIN51711 that inhibit picornavirus replication are thought to block poliovirus infectivity by binding to the capsid and preventing structural transitions required for uncoating. We examined the activity of WIN51711 at temperatures where capsid flexibility is thought to be decreased. Below 37 degrees C, WIN51711 inhibits the binding of wild-type poliovirus to cells but does not aff...

The American Academy of Pediatrics strongly supports the Polio Eradication and Endgame Strategic Plan of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative. This plan was endorsed in November 2012 by the Strategic Advisory Group of Experts on Immunization of the World Health Organization and published by the World Health Organization in April 2013. As a key component of the plan, it will be necessary to s...

Poliovirus infects 100% of susceptible individuals and causes acute flaccid paralysis in one out of200 infections. Type 1 causes epidemic poliomyelitis; type 2 has been eradicated worldwide; and type 3 is close to being eradicated. In this region, the last case of wild poliovirus occurred in Peru in 1991. There are still two endemic countries: Afghanistan and Pakistan, but countries where there...

The 15-decade drive to control and eradicate polio through immunization [1] has benefited from the availability of 2 excellent vaccines, the inactivated poliovirus vaccine (IPV) of Salk and colleagues, licensed in 1955, and the live attenuated oral poliovirus vaccine (OPV) of Sabin, licensed in 1961. The 2 vaccines have complementary advantages, and both have played—and continue to play—importa...

A retrospective analysis of the incidence of Guillain-Barré syndrome (GBS) in Finland in 1981-1986 was carried out by careful examination of medical records identified from nationwide Hospital Discharge Register data based on a mean total population of 5 million people. Records from 247 patients fulfilled the accepted criteria of GBS corresponding to a mean annual incidence of 0.82 per 100,000 ...

n engl j med 371;11 nejm.org september 11, 2014 981 trict tested positive for wild poliovirus type 1.1 Additional analyses retrospectively confirmed that the virus had already been present in February 2013 in samples from sewage-treatment plants near the capital of the South district. The virus found in these samples was closely related to polioviruses that have been circulating in polioendemic...

In 1988, the World Health Assembly resolved to eradicate poliomyelitis by the year 2000. Although substantial progress was achieved by 2000, global polio eradication proved elusive. In India, the goal was accomplished in 2011, and the entire South-East Asia Region was certified as polio-free in 2014. The year 2016 marks the lowest wild poliovirus type 1 case count ever, the lowest number of pol...

In Albania in 1996, a large outbreak of poliomyelitis, caused by a wild type 1 poliovirus, lasted from May to November, starting soon after the National Immunization Days (April to May 1996) and 15 years after the apparent interruption of circulation of indigenous wild-type strains of poliovirus (3). Genomic sequencing of the VP1-2A junction performed for all 74 isolates of wild poliovirus type...