Surveillance and Control of Poliomyelitis in The Netherlands

Inactivated poliovirus vaccine was introduced to the national immunization program in The Netherlands in 1957. A compliance rate of approximately 95% has existed since 1967. Only one of the 148 reported cases of paralytic poliomyelitis (from 1966 to 1982) occurred in an individual who had been vaccinated against poliomyelitis. Apart from sporadic imported cases, local outbreaks as well as an epidemic in 1978 were observed among certain susceptible Protestant populations. These unvaccinated groups, whose members--scattered as they are among the Dutch population--form a closed community, have to be considered at high-risk as long as importation of wild poliovirus strains occurs regularly. Endemic persistence of wild poliovirus in The Netherlands has, however, virtually disappeared. Potent inactivated poliovirus vaccine appears to be highly immunogenic and confers protection of long duration.