The polio Post-Certification Strategy is a comprehensive strategy that was developed to define the global technical standards or core set of activities that will be needed in order to sustain a polio-free world after global certification of wild poliovirus eradication.
The Post-Certification Strategy specifies at a global level the technical standards for functions (e.g. containment, vaccination, and surveillance) that are essential to maintain a polio-free world in the decade following certification.
The strategy has three goals:
- Contain polioviruses: Ensure potential sources of poliovirus are properly contained or removed
- Protect populations: Withdraw the oral live attenuated polio vaccine (OPV) from use and immunize populations with inactivated polio vaccine (IPV) against possible re-emergence of any poliovirus
- Detect and respond: Promptly detect any poliovirus in a human or in the environment and rapidly respond to prevent transmission
The strategy does not address areas such as governance, management, financing, or monitoring – which will be critical to implementation – but are expected to be defined by future owners of the strategy with support from the GPEI.
