[Poliomyelitis eradication is a visible unsolved problem in the coming years]

The WHO global polio eradication initiative launched in 1988, by eradicating wild polio viruses, was to be completed in 2000. The initiative had not been implemented. Enormous work has resulted in a reduction in the number of poliomyelitis cases worldwide from 350,000 to 1,500-2,000 a year. However, the incidence of poliomyelitis does not and is unlikely to stop by the newly fix date--2013. The reason is that vaccine-derived polio viruses that are pathogenic in nature remain and long circulate in the earth. The circulation in human beings leads to the restoration of their neurovirulence and ability to induce severe paralytic diseases. In 1999 the WHO reported the global eradication of wild polio virus type 2 and therefore there should not be diseases caused by polio virus of this type. Nevertheless, the virus-induced diseases continue to emerge. About 300 cases of diseases induced by vaccine-derived poliovirus type 2 had been notified by July 2009. At present, there is no way to eradicate all polio viruses worldwide so the case in point may be only to stop their transmission or minimize morbidity with on-going vaccination.