ABSTRACT
Poliomyelitis is an acute generalized disease caused by one of the three serotypes, 1,2 or 3, of a single stranded RNA virus whose characteristics are those of the picornaviridae group, subclass enterovirus.1 The majority of infections are asymptomatic, affecting mainly the gastrointestinal tract. Occasional spread is to the central nervous system (CNS), where damage to the anterior horn cells is the predominant site of involvement. Advances in the field of virology such as vaccination and epidemiology have been achieved since the initial propagation of the poliovirus in cell cultures of non-neural tissue by Enders and colleagues in 1949. Jonas Salk and Albert Sabin, discoverers of the inactivated poliovirus (IPV) and live oral poliovirus vaccines (OPV) in 1954 and 1961, respectively, have contributed significantly to the elimination of infantile paralysis in the developed world. In 1981 the poliovirus became the first RNA animal viral genome to be cloned.
