Vigilance is required for Australia to remain  polio free

Thorley, Bruce; Brussen, Kerri Anne; Elliott, Elizabeth J; Kelly, Heath A

doi:10.5694/j.1326-5377.2006.tb00326.x

Topics

To the Editor: Australia and the other member nations of the World Health Organization’s Western Pacific Region were declared free of circulating endemic poliovirus in 2000, although the last case of endemic polio in Australia occurred in the 1970s.1 Nevertheless, the low risk of vaccine-associated paralytic poliomyelitis (VAPP) persisted through the continued use of the Sabin live attenuated oral polio vaccine (OPV) until it was replaced by the Salk inactivated polio vaccine in the National Immunisation Program from 1 November 2005.2

1 Victorian Infectious Diseases Reference Laboratory, Melbourne, VIC.
2 Discipline of Paediatrics and Child Health, Children's Hospital at Westmead, and Clinical School, University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW.

Correspondence: bruce.thorley@mh.org.au

1. D’Souza RM, Kennett M, Watson C. Australia declared polio free. Commun Dis Intell 2002; 26: 253-260.
2. Australian Government Department of Health and Ageing. Replacement of oral polio vaccine (OPV) with inactivated polio vaccine (IPV). Available at: http://www.immunise.health.gov.au/ipv/index.htm (accessed Mar 2006).
3. World Health Organization. Laboratory surveillance for wild and vaccine-derived polioviruses, January 2004–June 2005. Wkly Epidemiol Rec 2005; 80: 335-340.
4. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Imported vaccine-associated paralytic poliomyelitis — United States, 2005. MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep 2006; 55: 97-99.
5. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Poliovirus infections in four unvaccinated children — Minnesota, August–October 2005. MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep 2005; 54: 1053-1055.

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