Enterovirus Research Centre, Haffkine Institute Compound, Parel, Mumbai-400012, India.
Abstracts of the papers presented at the International Conference of Indian Virological Society on “Emerging and Re-emerging viral Diseases of the Tropics and Subtropics” at Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi, India, December 11–14, 2007.
In 1988, the 41st World Health Assembly committed all the member States to Global Eradication of Poliomyelitis by the end of year 2000. Live attenuated trivalent poliovirus vaccine (OPV, Sabin) was recommended for immunization of children for this purpose. Although the goal has not been fully accomplished, wild poliovirus type 2 has been eradicated from the entire world in 1999. Since 1988, polio endemic countries declined from 125 to 4 and three (AMRO, WPRO and EURO) out of the six WHO regions have received certification of Polio Eradication. India, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Nigeria have not succeeded in reaching zero-polio status as yet. Polio eradication involved high OPV coverage through routine immunization program, high quality surveillance for acute flaccid paralysis, laboratory diagnosis and characterization of poliovirus isolates, and mass vaccination campaign/mopping-up rounds to eliminate wild virus transmission completely. In India most States succeeded in stopping wild poliovirus transmission by year 2000 but Uttar Pradesh and Bihar lagged behind. Polio eradication initiative in India suffered set-backs in 2002 and 2006 when polio cases increased substantially over the previous years (265 in 2000 to 1600 in 2002, and 64 in 2005 to 676 in 2006). Polio endemic Uttar Pradesh and Bihar have been implicated as the source of wild poliovirus detected in other parts of the country. Introduction of wild poliovirus from polio endemic States to polio-free areas/countries highlighted the need for achieving the goal urgently by modifying strategies where necessary. Outbreaks of paralytic poliomyelitis due to vaccine derived polioviruses (VDPV) in recently polio free-countries in which OPV coverage declined significantly has brought up new questions regarding polio immunization and strategies of stopping polio vaccination after certification of global polio eradication. Progress of PEI in India, new strategies for vaccination and implications thereof will be discussed.
