title: Acute flaccid paralysis surveillance: looking beyond the global poliomyelitis eradication initiative.
abstract: In 1992 surveillance of acute flaccid paralysis (AFP) cases was introduced in Malaysia along with the establishment of a national referral laboratory at the Institute for Medical Research. The objective of this study was to determine the incidence, viral etiology and clinical picture of AFP cases below 15 years of age, reported from 2002 to 2007. Six hundred seventy-eight of 688 reported cases were confirmed as AFP by expert review. The clinical presentation of acute flaccid paralysis in these cases was diverse, the most commonly reported being Guillian-Barre syndrome (32.3%). Sixty-nine viruses were isolated in this study. They were Sabin poliovirus (25), Echovirus (22), Cocksackie B (11), EV71 (5), Cocksackie A (1), and untypable (5). Malaysia has been confirmed as free from wild polio since the surveillance was established.
authors.affiliation: Virology Unit, Infectious Disease Research Center, Institute for Medical Research, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. saras@imr.gov.my
authors.forename: T S
authors.initials: TS
authors.lastname: Saraswathy
authors.forename: H Nor
authors.initials: HN
authors.lastname: Zahrin
authors.forename: M Y
authors.initials: MY
authors.lastname: Apandi
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Kurup
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Rohani
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Zainah
authors.forename: N S
authors.initials: NS
authors.lastname: Khairullah
mesh_terms: D000208:Acute Disease; D000293:Adolescent; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D006801:Humans; D008296:Malaysia / Q000453:epidemiology; D010264:Paraplegia / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000209:etiology / Q000821:virology*; D011051:Poliomyelitis / Q000150:complications; D018571:Sentinel Surveillance; D014777:Virus Diseases / Q000150:complications / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000821:virology*