摘要：Following the World Health Organization (WHO)recommendation, Australia conducts surveillancefor cases of acute flaccid paralysis (AFP) in childrenless than 15 years of age as the main methodto monitor its polio-free status. Cases of AFP inchildren are notified to the Australian PaediatricSurveillance Unit or the Paediatric Active EnhancedDisease Surveillance System and faecal specimensare referred for virological investigation to theNational Enterovirus Reference Laboratory. In2014, no cases of poliomyelitis were reported fromclinical surveillance and Australia reported 1.4 nonpolioAFP cases per 100,000 children, meetingthe WHO performance criterion for a sensitivesurveillance system. Non-polio enteroviruses canalso be associated with AFP and enterovirus A71and echovirus types 6 and 7 were identified fromclinical specimens from cases of AFP. Globally,359 cases of polio were reported in 2014, withthe 3 endemic countries, Afghanistan, Nigeria andPakistan, accounting for 95% of the cases. In May2014, the WHO declared the international spreadof wild poliovirus to be a public health emergencyof international concern and has since maintainedrecommendations for polio vaccination of travellersfrom countries reporting cases of wild polio.
