Electron micrograph of poliovirusWIKIMEDIA, CDCIn September, the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI) declared type 2 poliovirus eradicated. This long-awaited statement officially confirmed what polio researchers and global public health officials had known for more than a decade: one of the triumvirate of polioviruses was no longer a threat. The last case of type 2 poliovirus was diagnosed in Northern India in 1999.
The announcement also set in motion a critical component of the GPEI’s Poliovirus Eradication Endgame Strategic Plan. Among other things, public health officials are planning to stop using oral polio vaccine against type 2 poliovirus in April 2016. To reduce risk of accidental release, all laboratories that stock type 2 poliovirus—both the wild-type and vaccine virus—will need to destroy the virus soon after that date, or adopt stricter standards for handling it.
Containment of type 2 poliovirus, “really is a step forward to containment of type 1 and 3,” said Walter Dowdle, a consultant to the Task Force for Global Health and former deputy director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
This transition for handling laboratory stocks of type 2 poliovirus ...
