ABSTRACT
The Environmental Virology Laboratory is one of two laboratories
that form the Israeli Public Health Services Central Virology
Laboratory. This chapter is based on the cooperative effort of
three groups within the Environmental Virology Laboratory, namely,
the National Center for Viruses in the Environment, the National
Center for Polio and Non-polio Enteroviruses, and the molecular
epidemiology group. This chapter describes the routine, monthly
environmental surveillance program for the detection of the silent
presence and/or circulation of polioviruses within our communities
and how molecular epidemiological analysis can answer whether
the presence of a particular poliovirus isolate was due to bioerror,
bioterror, or just Mother Nature.
