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Updated: Jul 25, 2026
Particle Agglutination Method for Poliovirus Identification
Published on: April 20, 2011
Prevalence of poliovirus neutralizing antibodies in Italian population: A systematic review and meta-analysis
Silvio Tafuri1, Eustachio Cuscianna1, Francesco Paolo Bianchi1
1Department of Interdisciplinary Medicine, Aldo Moro University of Bari, Italy.
Introduction:
The introduction of anti-poliomyelitis vaccines has driven progress toward the global eradication of wild polioviruses, a millennium goal of the World Health Organization. With the vaccination campaigns carried out since 1964, in 2002 Italy was certified polio-free, considering that no cases had been recorded since 1983. Nevertheless, it is crucial to guarantee high level of immunization coverage also in low-endemicity countries, considering that sporadic polio cases can be recorded. To evaluate the presence of susceptible subjects in the population, seroepidemiological studies are key actions.
Methods:
We conducted a systematic review of the relevant literature to evaluate the prevalence of anti-PV neutralizing antibodies in Italian population. Seven studies, selected among scientific articles available in MEDLINE/PubMed, ISI Web of Knowledge and Scopus and published from January 1, 2012, to November 15, 2022, were included.
Results:
The pooled prevalence of subjects without PV1 neutralizing antibodies was 6.4% (95%CI = 0.5-16.9), for PV2 it was 5.3% (95%CI = 0.4-14.2), and for PV3 it was 13.0% (95%CI = 4.0-25.7; I2 = 98.5%). Levels of neutralizing antibodies appears to decrease with increasing age; this decline is a proxy for the real risk factor, which is the time since the last vaccine dose.
Conclusions:
Public health institutions must be aware of the risk of reintroduction of wild PV in polio-free countries and therefore they must keep high level of immunization in population and reinforce the active surveillance systems.
