[Poliomyelitis situation in Madagascar in 1993. Several considerations about the role of the laboratory in the eradication strategy].

After he has explained the worldwide strategy of poliovirus eradication, the author describes the Madagascar situation by reporting the rate of vaccinal coverage and the current surveillance system. He underlines the importance of laboratory in the poliomyelitis diagnosis, the isolated strain serotyping, the determination of strain characteristics: wild or Sabin-like, and their variability. From 1985 to the first five months of 1993, 65 poliovirus strains had been isolated, the most frequent of them is serotype 1. The realization of a map of neutralization epitope on a few type 1 poliovirus strains showed a major part of wild strains; the same case is valid for two other serotypes. The RFLP analysis of 6 type 1 poliovirus strains allowed to record their identity.