Polio

What CDC Is Doing to Eradicate Polio

We need everyone’s commitment and creativity to eradicate polio and cross the finish line. Disease eradication is the ultimate in sustainability because once a disease is eradicated it is gone forever for everyone. It is not going to be easy, quotes but together we can do this.

— Dr. Tom Frieden, Director, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

CDC is a strategic partner in the overall effort to eradicate polio worldwide. CDC provides scientific expertise to many polio eradication programs and activities:

Global Immunization Division (GID) staff members work jointly with WHO and national Ministries of Health to plan and monitor polio surveillance and immunization activities in multiple countries worldwide.
GID also supports other eradication projects such as conducting epidemiologic and vaccine efficacy studies and performing operational research for supplemental immunization activities.
The Polio and Picornavirus Laboratory in CDC’s Division
of Viral Diseases serves as a WHO Global Specialized Laboratory and provides technical and programmatic assistance to the global polio laboratory network overall. CDC’s labs provide critical diagnostic services and genomic sequencing of polioviruses to help guide disease control efforts in many countries. In 2010, this included support for new laboratory procedures now in place that significantly decrease the time it takes to detect and confirm new polio infection from 42 to 21 days. Other new laboratory procedures are helping countries overcome specific operational challenges, enable more rapid detection of wild poliovirus (WPV), and allow for faster response to importations or spread of virus.
Since 1999, more than 1,550 Stop Transmission of Polio (STOP) team members have participated in 3-month assignments in 62 countries, providing 262 person-years of support at the national and sub-national levels. In 2010 alone, the STOP program assigned 185 professionals to 36 countries to improve surveillance for acute flaccid paralysis (AFP, an early sign of possible polio) and to help plan, implement, and evaluate vaccination campaigns in partnership with WHO.
Country support through deployment of personnel and other resources.