The Second International Standard for anti-poliovirus sera types 1, 2 and 3

The Second International Standard for anti-poliovirus sera types 1, 2 and 3 was established by the WHO Expert Committee on Biological Standardization in 1991 on the basis of an extensive collaborative study. Nine laboratories from eight countries participated and all used neutralizing antibody assays. The standard is a human serum pool which contains antibodies to all three poliovirus types and replaces the three previously established monovalent standards which were all hyperimmune monkey sera. The standard was assigned an activity of 25 IU of anti-poliovirus serum (type 1) human: 50 IU of anti-poliovirus serum (type 2) human; and 5 IU of anti-poliovirus serum (type 3) human. The study also showed significant interlaboratory differences in relative potency are observed when human sera are compared to hyperimmune monkey sera. It was therefore recommended that National laboratory references are established from human sera.