German Health Survey 1997/98: State of immunity against poliomyelitis

Background: One of the goals of the WHO is the worldwide eradication of pol iomyelitis in the next years. A high level of population immunity protects against imported wild viruses from endemic areas. Patients and Methods: The first German Health Survey, a representative study of the heal th status of the population (aged between 17 and 79 years) in unified Germa ny, was started in 1997. In order to study the serological status against p oliomyelitis, a representative serum panel was investigated (n = 2564). Fur thermore, 881 sera from persons aged less than 18 years were included in th e study. The microneutralization test was used to demonstrate antibodies ag ainst the three poliovirus types. For the first time, the results were expr essed in international Units. The threshold values 0.075 IU, 0.180 IU, 0.08 0 IU were calculated for Polio 1, 2, 3 respectively. Results: Overall, neutralizing antibodies against poliovirus type 1, 2 and 3 were detected in 96,2%; 96,8% and 89,6% of samples, respectively. 85% of test persons had antibodies against all three virus types. Conclusions: The seroprevalence of antibodies against all three types of po lioviruses indicates a very high population immunity. It must be kept after the switch of immunization strategy from attenuated to inactivated vaccine in Germany (OPV to IPV).