Preventive strategies against poliomyelitis

Abstract Successful poliomyelitis prevention depends upon the epidemiological characteristics of the infection and the immune status of the population in the area. Presently available polio vaccines may prove very useful for progress with polio control, provided the prevention programme has been adequately chosen and the limitations of the vaccine used have been taken into consideration. In the present and near future, polio prevention should aim at the containment and local elimination of the paralytic disease, which can be obtained with either OPV or E-IPV. The vaccine-associated disease remains an unsolved issue in an OPV programme. The association of OPV and E-IPV offers a clear advantage over the immunization with a single vaccine, particularly with OPV alone. Global eradication of polio, possible in principle, will be difficult to achieve by the year 2000, because of the present global dimensions of polio infection and the unequal environmental development of the world.