Dedication to a lifelong mission: Gu Fangzhou and the Chinese road to polio elimination.

This paper reviews Professor Gu Fangzhou's contributions to polio control and elimination in China. Following the 1955 polio outbreak, he advocated for the live oral polio vaccine (OPV) route tailored to national conditions. To validate vaccine safety, he initiated human trials by testing the vaccine on himself and his infant son. He led the construction of the domestic OPV production base and pioneered the sugar-coated pill formulation to overcome cold chain constraints, ultimately facilitating the nationwide elimination of indigenous wild polioviruses by 1994. Furthermore, he established China's OPV production and quality control standards and trained numerous public health professionals.