Combating Wild Poliovirus Peter Schuckert Kaplan University HS315-01 Dr. Jose Fierro March, 28 2012
Combating Wild Poliovirus In this day and age there are vaccines available to prevent a wide variety of diseases. The use of vaccines in a systematic fashion was successful in the eradication of smallpox. This has given many epidemiologists hope that society can eventually eradicate all infectious diseases. An example of a disease that is currently being combated and near eradication is poliomyelitis. Surveillance is the primary method of data collection used by epidemiologists to identify outbreaks, track the origin of the virus, and target vaccination efforts. The World Health Organization has identified the need and more importantly the medical ability to eradicate polio. Subsequently the World Health Organization launched the Global Polio Eradication Initiative with the goal of polio eradication in mind ("Progress towards global," 2012). When wild poliovirus is suspected the medical personal will have the samples tested at accredited facilities that identifies if wild poliovirus is present in the sample being tested. If wild poliovirus is present then further testing is conducted. Once a sample has tested positive for wild poliovirus genetic screening is used to identify which strain of wild poliovirus is present in the sample ("Progress towards global," 2012). Making use of the genetic profile of the sample and current medical knowledge the Global Polio Eradication Initiative can identify the origin of the wild poliovirus in the sample. Obviously this can be useful in tracking the movement of wild poliovirus which can aid in containing the disease. Surveillance is used if many ways to identify areas to target
