Some epidemiological aspects of poliomyelitis in Turkey; a serological survey for neutralizing and complement-fixing antibodies against polioviruses.

A total of 134 sera from Turkish persons without clinical history of poliomyelitis were tested for poliomyelitis neutralizing antibody by the tissue-culture neutralization test and 168 similar sera were tested for complement-fixing antibody. With the neutralization test, all sera of persons over 10 years old were found to contain antibody against at least one type of poliovirus. The neutralizing antibody level, however, decreased after the age of 20 years. Of the 65 sera which could be tested by both methods, only half were positive in both.At the same time, the records of 218 poliomyelitis cases from Ankara have been analysed; 132 cases were in the 0-5-year age-group.The results indicate that poliomyelitis is endemic in Turkey and that it can still be appropriately called "infantile paralysis".