Mucosal immunity and polio vaccines: impact on wild poliovirus infection, transmission and vaccine failure

Meeting of experts: December 2010, Delhi, India

Recognizing the very high force of wild poliovirus transmission in key areas of India, an ongoing programme of work aims to develop and test additional approaches to reduce the force of infection and increase mucosal gut immunity and thereby maximise vaccine efficacy.

As part of this programme of work, a meeting was held in December 2010 in Delhi, India, on examining mucosal immunity and identify additional approaches to improve the immune responsiveness and effectiveness of oral polio vaccines in order to accelerate the goal of interrupting wild poliovirus transmission. The meeting, organized by the World Health Organization (WHO), convened global experts from the fields of immunology, epidemiology and vaccinology.

The outcomes of this meeting will be published in the leading medical journal, Expert Review of Vaccines.


The full list of participants of the meeting follows:

Chair:

• Pearay Ogra (School of Medicine, University at Buffalo, State University of New York)

Speakers:

• M. K. Bhan (Ministry of Science and Technology, India);
• Hiroyuki Shimizu (National Institute of Infectious Diseases, Japan);
• Roland Sutter (World Health Organization);
• Hamid Jafari (National Polio Surveillance Project/WHO);
• T. Jacob John (Christian Medical College Hospital);
• William Petri (University of Virginia Health System);
• Kim Thompson (Kid Risk Inc.);
• John Modlin (Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center);
• Howard Faden (Women & Children’s Hospital of Buffalo);
• Nick Grassly (Imperial College London);
• Eckard Wimmer (State University of New York);
• Philip Minor (National Institute for Biological Standards and Control, UK);
• Olen Kew (US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention);
• Chris Wilson (Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation);
• Shobha Broor (All India Institute of Medical Sciences);
• Firdausi Qadri (International Centre for Diarrheal Disease Research);
• Neal Halsey (John Hopkins University);
• Martin Friede (World Health Organization);
• Hiroshi Kiyono (University of Tokyo);
• Walter Dowdle (The Task Force for Global Health);
• Mark Pallansch (US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention);
• Kostya Chumakov (US Food and Drug Administration); and
• Cecil Czerkinsky (International Vaccine Institute).