Polio: guidance, vaccination, data and analysis
The diagnosis, vaccination, management and epidemiology of polio (poliomyelitis).
Poliomyelitis (polio) is a highly infectious vaccine preventable disease. It is a notifiable disease in England and Wales.
Polio invades the nervous system and can cause total paralysis in a matter of hours (see acute flaccid paralysis). It can strike at any age but affects mainly children aged under 3 years. Most people infected with the poliovirus have no signs of illness. Symptomless people can spread the infection to thousands of others before the first case of polio paralysis emerges.
See enterovirus infections for further information.
For the latest international news on polio see statements from the World Health Organization (WHO) and news from the National Travel Health Network and Centre (NaTHNac).
Diagnosis
Clinical management
Global polio eradication
In 1988 the World Health Assembly passed a resolution to eradicate polio. The Global Poliovirus Eradication Initiative (GPEI), along with its partners, have supported countries to roll out highly effective polio vaccines and make huge progress in protecting the global population from this debilitating disease. As a result, the global incidence of polio has decreased by 99.9%. An estimated 20 million people today are walking who would otherwise have been paralysed by the disease, and more than 1.5 million people are alive, whose lives would otherwise have been lost.
Immunisation programme and resources
Polio is a vaccine-preventable disease. The routine childhood immunisation schedule includes vaccination against polio.