摘要：For Australia to be declared polio free, evidence of the absence of circulation of wild poliovirus wasrequired by the Regional Commission for the Certification of Eradication of Poliomyelitis in the WesternPacific in August 2000. Data on surveillance of poliomyelitis, acute flaccid paralysis (AFP), vaccineassociated paralytic polio and enteroviruses were provided to document the absence of circulation of wildpoliovirus. The last wild poliomyelitis virus case in Australia was in 1972. AFP surveillance has improvedsince it was initiated in 1995 and achieved a rate of 0.94 per 100,000 population in 1999. No wildpolioviruses have been isolated from stool samples of AFP cases. Australia has in place a comprehensivenetwork of laboratories for enterovirus surveillance and this provides further evidence for the absence ofwild poliovirus infection. The immunisation coverage in the country has been over 80 per cent over thelast 3 years. If there were an importation of a case of poliomyelitis into Australia, a national outbreakresponse would be coordinated through the Communicable Diseases Network Australia. Plans forcontainment of laboratory stocks of wild poliovirus are being implemented. The evidence provided wassufficient to satisfy the Regional Commission that there was no wild poliovirus circulating in the regionand enabled Australia to be declared polio free on October 29, 2000 along with the other 36 countries inthe Western Pacific Region. Australia must remain vigilant against importations of wild poliovirus fromendemic countries and maintain high immunisation coverage and sensitive surveillance systems
