Poliomyelitis in France: epidemiology and vaccination status.

In France, infants are immunized against paralytic poliomyelitis with enhanced-potency inactivated poliovirus vaccine (eIPV) combined with the diphtheria-tetanus-pertussis vaccine (DTP). Ninety-five percent of all infants in France have received four doses of DTP-eIPV by 24 months of age. No cases of vaccine-associated paralysis, among either recipients or those in contact with recipients, have been reported since 1983, when eIPV became the vaccine of choice. Only three wild indigenous cases have been reported among unvaccinated children in 1988 and 1989, with no cases reported in 1990. Although paralytic poliomyelitis has been virtually eliminated in France, vaccination programs as well as active surveillance of the community and environment for poliovirus circulation should be reinforced to reach the goal of wild poliovirus eradication.