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Bulletin of the World Health Organization logoLink to Bulletin of the World Health Organization
. 1983;61(5):833–837.

Comparison of techniques for the estimation of the prevalence of poliomyelitis in developing countries

B Joseph, R Ravikumar, M John, K Natarajan, M C Steinhoff, T J John
PMCID: PMC2536160  PMID: 6606499

Abstract

Although reliable data on the prevalence and trends of paralytic poliomyelitis are necessary for health planning, they are often difficult to obtain in developing countries. Comparisons were made of the cost and the time taken to obtain prevalence rates of residual poliomyelitis paralysis in a single community by (1) a surveillance and reporting system using physicians and other practitioners, (2) a school survey covering grades 1 to 12, (3) annual surveys of grade 1 schoolchildren, and (4) a house-to-house questionnaire survey. These techniques gave poliomyelitis prevalence rates of 3-5 per 1000 school-age children, and poliomyelitis incidence rates of 12-29 per 100 000 population per year. The annual grade 1 school survey was the cheapest and easiest to carry out and appears reliable in areas with a high rate of school enrolment.

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Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

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