Canada's progress in implementing poliovirus containment

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Background: The goal of the Global Polio Eradication Campaign is to eliminate the remaining poliovirus circulating in human populations.Once eradicated, polio immunization rates are expected to decline and the only source of poliovirus will be in laboratory facilities, which poses a risk for re-introducing poliovirus into susceptible human populations.Objective: To develop and implement a robust poliovirus containment and monitoring program in Canada to support global polio eradication efforts.Methods: The Public Health Agency of Canada's Centre for Biosecurity (PHAC-CB) established the National Authority for Containment (NAC Canada) to oversee World Health Organization (WHO)'s Global Action Plan (GAP) for Poliovirus Containment.Facilities that entered into the GAP Containment Certification Scheme were designated as Poliovirus Essential Facilities.With the goal of reducing poliovirus material storage in Canada, and for containing the existing poliovirus stocks, the NAC Canada established inventories, audited and certified Poliovirus Essential Facilities, completed GAP training and qualified auditors and performed stakeholder outreach.Results: Canada was among the first countries to qualify GAP auditors under the Containment Certification Scheme and was the first country in the world to move onto the second stage of poliovirus containment, when a Canadian Poliovirus Essential Facility was awarded the first Interim Certificate of Containment (ICC).The Canadian national poliovirus inventory, maintained by NAC Canada, leveraged the PHAC-CB Biosecurity Portal and stakeholder outreach (including surveys, website, newsletters, webinars) to identify sources of poliovirus and potentially infectious materials.From 2018-2024, the number of facilities in Canada storing wild type and Sabin poliovirus were reduced by 82% and 89%, respectively.In 2022, a multi-jurisdictional emergency exercise was conducted to evaluate coordinated response mechanisms for a simulated laboratory release of poliovirus.The Risk Group classification of human polioviruses in Canada was increased to Risk Group 3 (RG3) in 2023, to better align with the WHO GAP containment requirements.Conclusion: Canada's NAC is collaborating with national stakeholders and international partners towards the goal of poliovirus eradication.Containment and monitoring efforts to reduce poliovirus in storage and to verify that Canadian Poliovirus Essential Facilities meet both federal legislative requirements and GAP biorisk management elements are key to health security in the current and post-polio eradication worlds.Canada's NAC activities will continue working towards decreasing the risk associated with poliovirus to safeguard the health and safety of Canadians.

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