Polio eradication: strengthening the weakest links.
Polio eradication, like all eradication efforts, is a gamble. If it fails, much of the money spent will have been wasted. If it succeeds, the world will reap a dividend. Success or failure and the magnitude of the dividend depend on a long chain of "weakest links." In this paper I identify these links and explain how the chain can be strengthened. A crucial vulnerability is the current plan to halt vaccination using the live-attenuated oral polio vaccine in the post-eradication era. This weakest link can be strengthened by efforts that lower the cost to poor countries of vaccinating with the inactivated poliovirus vaccine.
Barrett
Scott
S
Lenfest-Earth Institute, Columbia University, New York City, NY, USA. sb3116@columbia.edu
D003140:Communicable Disease Control / Q000379:methods; D004196:Disease Outbreaks / Q000517:prevention & control; D014943:Global Health; D006801:Humans; D017589:Immunization Programs; D011051:Poliomyelitis / Q000517:prevention & control* / Q000635:transmission; D017955:Poliovirus / Q000276:immunology / Q000472:pathogenicity; D011055:Poliovirus Vaccine, Oral
D011055:Poliovirus Vaccine, Oral