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Polio endgame finish is in sight

Efforts to eradicate polio globally have been under way for more than 35 years. The development of modified versions of a vaccine in current use now makes eradication a real possibility.
  1. Alan D. T. Barrett

    1. Alan D. T. Barrett is at the Sealy Institute for Vaccine Sciences and in the Department of Pathology, University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston, Texas 77555, USA.

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Vaccination has been crucial for the control of certain infectious diseases. However, only two have so far been eradicated — the human disease smallpox and an animal infection called rinderpest. In both cases, the virus responsible was eradicated using a vaccination approach based on a ‘weakened’ version of the infectious virus (termed a live attenuated vaccine). Writing in Nature, Yeh et al.1 report their development of a live attenuated vaccine that might offer a way to eradicate poliomyelitis (polio).

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Nature 619, 36-38 (2023)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-023-01773-9

References

  1. Yeh, M. T. et al. Nature 619, 135–142 (2023).

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Competing Interests

The author declares no competing interests.

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