poliovirus

In 2013, the ADF teamed up with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation on a mission to eradicate polio, and last year all of sub-Saharan Africa was declared free of wild poliovirus.

Most people who become infected with poliovirus don’t feel sick, while some have flu-like symptoms.

Weakened poliovirus in the vaccine has genetic changes that keep it from causing disease.

As vaccine virus multiplies in the gut, it can lose key genetic changes, bringing it closer to behaving like wild poliovirus.

The Salk vaccine used three types of poliovirus, including the Mahoney strain, known to be particularly deadly but it also produced the strongest immune response.

Enterovirus itself, with dozens of different types that affect humans, is another, as is—most famously—poliovirus.