Poliovirus Potentially Infectious Material

All World Health Organization member states have made an international commitment for the containment of polioviruses. This includes setting up a national poliovirus inventory. The Centre for Biosecurity maintains and updates the National Poliovirus Inventory for facilities that handle or store poliovirus and potentially infectious material.

Poliovirus potentially infectious materials are:

•         human fecal samples
•         respiratory samples
•         concentrated sewage samples
•         derivatives of the above

They must have been:

•         stored in conditions that support poliovirus survival and
•         collected:
•    where poliovirus was circulating or
•    when oral polio vaccine (oral polio virus Sabin) was in use

Poliovirus in clinical or environmental specimens survive:

•         indefinitely in the laboratory freezer (≤-20°C)
•         for many months in the refrigerator
•         for hours-to-days on the laboratory bench-top

Laboratories storing eradicated wild-type poliovirus must obtain certification under the World Health Organization's Global Action Plan III as a Poliovirus-Essential Facility.

You may have poliovirus potentially infectious material if you have samples from a time and place where any of the following were circulating:

•         wild poliovirus
•         vaccine-derived poliovirus
•         oral polio vaccine (Sabin)

The World Health Organization published a guidance document to help facilities determine whether they possess potentially infectious material.

If you believe you have poliovirus potentially infectious material, contact the Centre for Biosecurity (biosafety.biosecurite@phac-aspc.gc.ca).