Report of the Australian National Polio Reference Laboratory, 1 July to 31 December 2000

The Australian National Polio Reference Laboratory at the Victorian Infectious Diseases Reference Laboratory (VIDRL) is responsible for processing and testing samples for poliovirus from all Australian patients with acute flaccid paralysis and for identifying and characterising polioviruses recovered from untyped enteroviruses submitted from Australian laboratories. From 1 July to 31 December 2000, a total of 12 specimens from 7 patients with AFP were referred to the NPRL. Poliovirus type 3 Sabin-like was isolated from samples from 2 patients with suspected vaccine- associated paralytic poliomyelitis. No viruses were isolated from samples from the remaining 5 patients. Since 1995 a total of 1,325 isolates have been referred for testing from laboratories throughout Australia. Seven hundred (53%) were confirmed as Sabin vaccine-like polioviruses, 542 (41%) were non-polio enteroviruses and 82 (6%) yielded no virus or viruses other than enteroviruses. At Kyoto, Japan in October 2000, the Western Pacific Region of the World Health Organization was declared wild polio-free. This represents a significant step towards the global eradication of poliovirus with one quarter of the world's population free of endemic infections from wild poliovirus. Surveillance of AFP and containment of wild polioviruses has been coordinated at the VIDRL. Since February 2000, Australia has been developing and implementing a plan for the containment of wild poliovirus stocks and potentially infectious materials.