Polio Expert Panel (PEP)

Role

The Polio Expert Panel (PEP) has an ongoing role to:

review and classify all reported cases of acute flaccid paralysis (AFP) as
- non-polio AFP
- AFP with more information required
- polio-compatible AFP
  - polio not excluded
  - zero evidence
- poliomyelitis
  - wild poliovirus infection
  - vaccine-associated paralytic poliomyelitis (VAPP)
  - vaccine-derived poliovirus (VDPV)
- non AFP
provide expert advice on poliomyelitis surveillance, prevention and eradication
contribute expert advice on poliomyelitis and poliovirus transmission during suspected or confirmed poliomyelitis events including the detection of poliovirus in wastewater
support national coordination of poliovirus surveillance activities, including AFP, enterovirus, and wastewater surveillance systems.

Member	Background and experience
Associate Professor Philip Britton (Chair)	Paediatric Active Enhanced Diseases Surveillance representative Kids Research Institute, The Children’s Hospital at Westmead, Westmead, NSW
Dr Eppie Yiu (Deputy Chair)	Paediatric Neurologist Neurology Department Royal Children’s Hospital, Parkville, Vic
Dr Sarah Allen	Paediatric Infectious Diseases Specialist Department of Immigrant Health/General Paediatrics Royal Children’s Hospital, Parkville, Vic
Dr Shopna Bag	Public Health Physician Director, Public Health Medicine, Centre for Population Health Western Sydney Local Health District, Parramatta, NSW
Professor John Pearn	Paediatrician Emeritus Professor, Department of Paediatrics and Child Health Royal Children’s Hospital, Herston, Qld
Dr Anne Morris	Australian Paediatric Surveillance Unit representative The University of Sydney, Faculty of Medicine and Health and, Kids Research (SCHN) The Children’s Hospital at Westmead, Westmead, NSW
Associate Professor Bruce Thorley	Virologist Director, National Enterovirus Reference Laboratory Victorian Infectious Diseases Reference Laboratory The Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity, Melbourne, Vic
Ms Linda Hobday (Secretariat)	National Enterovirus Reference Laboratory Victorian Infectious Diseases Reference Laboratory The Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity, Melbourne, Vic

The PEP meets:

every 2 months by virtual conference to review Australian AFP cases
annually face-to-face to review the performance of AFP surveillance systems (subject to funding)
on an ad hoc basis where there is a suspected case of poliomyelitis or detection of poliovirus in Australia.

The National AFP Surveillance Coordinator tasks the PEP to review and classify AFP cases reported by the:

The PEP is a subcommittee of the Communicable Diseases Network Australia (CDNA) and reports to the :