Following wide engagement of stakeholders – from lab workers to engineers to certification bodies responsible for signing off on the lockdown of poliovirus strains after certification of eradication – WHO’s chief guidance document for poliovirus containment has been given an overhaul. The update to the WHO Global Action Plan for Poliovirus Containment (GAP-IV, previously GAP-III) comes at the request of the WHO Containment Advisory Group (CAG) and streamlines the tool with other relevant WHO guidance and technical recommendations made by CAG. Its availability is expected to help accelerate containment implementation worldwide.

Containment involves biosafety and biosecurity requirements for laboratories and vaccine production sites, or any other place handling and storing eradicated polioviruses, to minimize the risk of these pathogens being released into communities. It also concerns risk mitigation measures associated with field use of some live oral polio vaccines. WHO urges facilities holding virus to move through its Containment Certification Scheme, and follow guidance contained in GAP-IV.