Guidelines for implementing the pre-eradication phase of the global action plan for laboratory containment of wild polioviruses

Overview

The guidelines published here begin implementation of the pre-eradication phase of the action plan by initiating two critical steps: surveying all medical/biological laboratories that might possess wild poliovirus infectious and/or potentially infectious materials and establishing a global inventory system for laboratories that retain such materials.

The purpose of the global survey is to establish a global inventory of all laboratories with wild poliovirus infectious and/or potentially infectious materials, describe the global action plan to ensure safe handling of all such materials and to effect disposal of those materials no longer needed by the laboratory