Background

From 2000 to 2001, efforts of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative, spearheaded by the World Health Organization, Rotary International, US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and UNICEF, have reduced the number of polio-endemic countries from 20 to 10. The number of new cases globally was slashed by more than 80%, from 2979 in 2000 to 537 in 2001.* This represents a greater than 99.8% reduction since 1988, when polio paralyzed more than 350,000 children in 125 countries.

Once polio has been eradicated, the only sources of wild poliovirus will be in biomedical laboratories. Prevention of inadvertent transmission of polioviruses from the laboratory to a growing non-immune community is crucial. The first step toward laboratory containment is a national inventory of all biomedical laboratories. The inventory alerts laboratories to the impending eradication of polio and encourages the destruction of all unneeded wild poliovirus infectious and potential infectious materials. Laboratories that retain poliovirus materials for ongoing work will be placed on the national inventory. When wild poliovirus transmission is interrupted, laboratories on the national inventory will be notifies when to implement biosafety measures appropriate for the materials stored and procedures performed.

* Data as of 11 April, 2002. The World Health Organization estimates 600 cases globally once all data are received.

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Poliovirus Laboratory Containment in the United States

• In November 2000, the Assistant Secretary for Health designated the National Vaccine Program Office (NVPO), HHS to serve as secretariat for the development of a strategy to conduct a national inventory of all biomedical laboratories that may contain wild poliovirus materials and compile a national inventory of laboratories retaining such materials.



• In June 2001, the Secretary for Health and Human Services, declared in a letter to the Regional Director of PAHO that:

  The United States is fully committed to PAHO's Executive Committee Resolution CE126.R4 urging Member States "to initiate activities related to the containment of any laboratory material that may harbor specimens of wild poliovirus."

• In October 2001, NVPO initiated Poliovirus Laboratory Containment Preparedness (PLCP) to conduct a national inventory and compile results.
  
  
• In March 2002, representatives of all relevant Departments of the Executive Branch (Department of Agriculture, Department of Commerce, Department of Defense, Department of Education, Department of Energy, Department of Justice, Department of Labor, The Environmental Protection Agency, National Science Foundation, and Department of Veterans Affairs) met to endorse the national inventory strategy and define departmental roles.
  
  
• In May 2002, the pilot phase of the national inventory was initiated with 525 laboratories.
  
  
• In October 2002, the national inventory began. The US joins 122 countries that already started or completed their national inventories.

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This page last reviewed October 15, 2002
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