Monitoring of the environment as a means of poliovirus surveillance

For certification that the eradication of poliomyelitis has been achieved it is essential to be sure that no wild polioviruses are circulated in the population, and no such viruses can be isolated from healthy people or from environmental samples. The central problem is how to detect wild poliovirus rapidly and reliably and technical difficulties arise due to the circulation of live polio vaccine viruses and other enteroviruses. New sensitive and more specific methods that allow detection of wild poliovirus in environmental specimens is urgently required. The new approach will include the use of the PGR in combination with other techniques. One of the important questions of environmental surveillance of wild polioviruses is the duration of such surveillance.