Mucosal immunity and poliovirus vaccines: impact on wild poliovirus infection and transmission.

Since the resolution of the World Assembly in 1988 to eradicate polio globally, substantial progress toward this target has been achieved, but the final goal remains elusive. India and other tropical developing countries present a unique challenge because of the much lower oral poliovirus vaccine (OPV) immunogenicity compared to industrialized countries, both in terms of humoral and mucosal immunity. To overcome this challenge, further research is needed to elucidate the causes for the suboptimal OPV immunogenicity, better defining the optimal vaccine schedules and delivery strategies, developing and evaluating adjuvants to boost OPV immunogenicity, and improving the methods for directly measuring mucosal immunity.