Update: eradication of paralytic poliomyelitis in the Americas

On August 23, 1991, a 2-year-old boy in the district of Junin, Peru, had onset of symptoms of culture-confirmed paralytic poliomyelitis. This is the last case of paralytic poliomyelitis with a wild poliovirus isolate reported to the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) and the first time since reporting of poliomyelitis began in the Western Hemisphere that no such paralytic disease has been detected for an entire year. This report updates the poliomyelitis eradication effort in the Americas.