[State of collective immunity against poliomyelitis in some regions of Russia].

Aim: Study the state of collective immunity against poliomyelitis in 7 regions of Russia in the last 3 years.

Materials And Methods: 2579 sera were studied for antibodies against poliomyelitis virus. Antibodies (AT) against 3 types of viruses were determined in neutralization reaction in RD cell culture, the state of collective immunity in the examined individuals was evaluated by the percent of individuals with AT against a type of poliovirus and geometric mean AT titer.

[Use of the cultural variants of Coxsackie A viruses in virological practice].

Coxsackie A viruses belong to the enteroviruses, the isolation of which from infectious materials and further cultivation are possible only when laboratory animals are infected. The authors could adapt the strains of 17 of 23 serotypes of these viruses to RD cell culture. The strains of 8 serotypes were additionally adapted to Vero cell culture.

[Possible method of eradication of poliomyelitis as an infection].

Problem of poliomyelitis eradication is examined in the review. After the eradication of wild poliovirus, vaccine poliomyelitis virus continues to circulate in the human population. In rare cases it can cause the development of the disease.

[Poliomyelitis eradication is a visible unsolved problem in the coming years].

The WHO global polio eradication initiative launched in 1988, by eradicating wild polio viruses, was to be completed in 2000. The initiative had not been implemented. Enormous work has resulted in a reduction in the number of poliomyelitis cases worldwide from 350,000 to 1,500-2,000 a year.

[Herd immunity against poliomyelitis in children in the Moscow Region].

Herd immunity against poliomyelitis was studied in 1391 children and adolescents from 10 towns of the Moscow Region. It was ascertained that the values of herd immunity against poliomyelitis virus type 1 were high everywhere and those of herd immunity against poliomyelitis virus type 2 were high and very high in 9 towns and below the WHO minimum levels (80%). The values of herd immunity against poliomyelitis virus type 3; they were lower than the required minimum in 2 towns and very low in 2 other towns arouse alarm.

[Immunity to poliomyelitis in adult population of Moscow region. Role of vaccine and wild polioviruses in its formation].

Assessment of immunity to poliomyelitis in adults from 8 towns of Moscow region was conducted. Low levels of population immunity against some serotypes of poliovirus in several towns have been found. At the same time, these levels were high and very high in other towns.

[Collective poliomyelitis immunity in the adult population and its impact on eradication of this infection].

Collective poliomyelitis immunity was studied in 6339 donors from 19 towns and cities of Russia. Its stress substantially varied in different towns and cities. Studies of strain-specific antibodies to vaccine and wild viruses of poliomyelitis in donors from 4 towns established that the immune persons were more in the town where wild polioviruses had previously circulated than in those where the circulation of wild polioviruses had been limited and immunity resulted from vaccination.

[Serous meningitis].

During the second half of the 1950s serous meningitis and other enterovirus-induced diseases played one of the leading roles in human pathology in the world. Since the introduction of oral poliomyelitis vaccine (OPV) into wide medical practice from the beginning of the 1960s and during the subsequent decades the number of epidemics and the morbidity level in enterovirus-induced diseases sharply dropped. This was probably due to the interference of enteroviruses circulating in nature and vaccine polioviruses in the intestine of vaccinated children.

[Enteroviruses in the XX and XXI centuries].

The modern view of the role of enteroviruses in the eradication of poliomyelitis is presented. Enteroviruses were discovered in the XX century. In the 1950s they caused great epidemics of poliomyelitis and serous meningitis in many countries of the world.

[Strain-specific antibodies as an indicator of the circulation of wild poliomyelitis viruses and their role in the formation of collective immunity in the population].

Essential differences in the intensity of collective immunity to poliomyelitis in the donors of Moscow and Kaluga were established. To find out the nature of high characteristics of collective immunity to poliovirus, types 1 and 2, in the donors of Kaluga, strain-specific antibodies to wild and vaccine polioviruses were studied. In a considerable number of donors strain-specific antibodies to poliovirus, types 1 and 2, were detected.

[State of collective immunity to poliomyelitis in Moscow donors].

Immunity induced by immunization with oral poliomyelitis vaccine has long been considered to last for life, similarly to immunity developing after infection with wild poliomyelitis virus. Vaccine virus cannot circulate among the immune population for a long time. The vaccination of children against poliomyelitis, carried out in the course of many years, has made it possible to suggest that a considerable number of immune persons were present among the adult population.

[How poliomyelitis is to be eradicated completely].

In 1988 the World Health Assembly resolved to eradicate poliomyelitis globally by the year 2000. The work continues. The problem arose how to quit the system of mass immunization with oral poliovirus vaccine (OPV) without trouble and to achieve the disappearance of polioviruses worldwide.

[Strain-specific antibodies to wild poliomyelitis viruses as an index of the circulation of these viruses in a surveyed territory].

In response to vaccination or infection with wild poliovirus, some children can finely differentiate the virus structure and respond by forming strain-specific antibodies. The analysis of strain-specific antibodies indicates that in epidemically unfavorable regions strain-specific antibodies to wild poliovirus strains may prevail over those to vaccine poliovirus strains in children or occur with equal frequency. In epidemically favourable regions strain-specific antibodies to vaccine poliovirus strain significantly prevail in children or may be absent at all.

[Live enteroviral vaccines for the emergency nonspecific prevention of mass respiratory diseases during fall-winter epidemics of influenza and acute respiratory diseases].

The results of the 3-year controlled trials of a new method of nonspecific urgent prophylaxis of influenza and acute respiratory diseases (ADR) by immunization of healthy adults with standard live enterovirus oral vaccines, introduced in 2-3 administrations at intervals of 7-10 days, at the initial stages of autumn and winter epidemics are presented. Observations, carried out in three republics, covered more than 150,000 persons immunized with enterovirus interferonogenic vaccines. A considerable decrease in morbidity rate among the vaccinees was achieved (on the average, by 3.

[Characteristics of the genome of poliovirus type 3 isolated from patients with poliomyelitis in Moldavia].

Twelve poliovirus isolates of serotype 3 from patients with paralytic poliomyelitis have been analyzed by oligonucleotide mapping of the viral genomes. All the studied strains were isolated from patients in different regions of the Moldavian SSR in 1982. The maps of all isolates are similar but they do not practically possess any large oligonucleotides characteristic of the vaccine strain of type 3 poliovirus.

[Long-term observations of dynamics of collective immunity to poliomyelitis in vaccinated children].

Examinations of children in the Moscow region in 1972 revealed low values of the herd immunity to poliomyolitis. This was suggested to be due to improper organization of vaccination of children. The regional health authorities took special measures for better organization of vaccination.

[Status of herd immunity to poliomyelitis in children in the Moscow region].

The paper presents the results of 3-year observations of the status of herd immunity to poliomyelitis in 7 towns of the Moscow region. In individual years antibody for poliomyelitis virus of 3 types was found in 63-74% of the examined children and from 2.7 to 7.