摘要：The Australian National Polio Reference Laboratory was established at the Victorian Infectious DiseasesReference Laboratory (VIDRL) in late 1994 to carry out virological confirmation of the eradication of poliomyelitis in Australia. The laboratory is responsible for transporting samples from all Australian patients with acute flaccidparalysis (AFP) to VIDRL for poliovirus culture, identification and intratypic differentiation. The laboratory alsoperforms polio serology on selected serum samples from AFP patients when faecal samples are not available. In1998, faecal specimens were received from 11 patients with AFP. Adenovirus type 2 was isolated from 1 patient andan untypable non-polio enterovirus from another. No viruses were isolated from the other 9 patients. Since 1995,over 820 isolates have been transported to VIDRL from laboratories in five Australian states for testing. Threehundred and seventy three (45%) were confirmed as Sabin vaccine-like polioviruses, 416 (51%) were non-polioenteroviruses and 24 (3%) yielded no virus or viruses other than enteroviruses. Eight polioviruses are stilluncharacterised
