26/03/2018
Endemic countries, Innovation, Research, Surveillance
Pakistan
The journey of a stool sample: Understanding polio surveillance
In Pakistan and across the world, the poliovirus surveillance system and laboratory network are critical to eradication efforts.
Surveillance is one of the main pillars of the polio eradication initiative. By testing stool samples collected from children suffering acute flaccid paralysis – the clearest symptom of the virus – as well as samples taken from sewage water, we are able to find the poliovirus wherever it is hiding.
Pakistan’s polio surveillance system is one of the largest ever established in the world. Click through these pictures to learn about the journey of a stool sample there: From a child with suspected polio to the laboratory.
Related News
21/03/2023
21 March 2023
10/03/2023
On Tuesday 28 February 2023, ministers and high-level delegates from across the Eastern Mediterranean Region participated in the seventh meeting of the Regional Subcommittee for Polio Eradication and Outbreaks.
09/03/2023
Latest recommendations from independent global certification body
08/03/2023
At the workshops, women health workers were the chief guests while everyone else had one job: to listen.
06/03/2023
Seventh meeting of the Regional Subcommittee for Polio Eradication and Outbreaks - 28 February 2023
14/02/2023
Rosemary Mukui Nzunza, the head of the Expanded Programme on Immunization (EPI) at the Centre for Virus Research, the Kenya Medical Research Institute, shares her story of pursuing a career in science