Context

Effective polio surveillance requires virologists, epidemiologists, clinicians, and national immunization programme staff, backed up by a global network of laboratories.
The Global Polio Laboratory Network (GPLN) was established in 1990 by WHO and national governments. Its primary responsibility is to distinguish poliovirus as a cause of acute flaccid paralysis (AFP) from AFP caused by other diseases.
The GPLN currently consists of 146 WHO accredited polio laboratories, in 92 countries across the six WHO regions of the world.
Since the beginning of the program, a core activity of the GPLN has been to test stool specimens from patients with acute flaccid paralysis (AFP) for the presence of polioviruses. More recently, sewage specimens are also tested in several countries as a supplement to AFP surveillance.
National, regional, and global specialized polio laboratories follow WHO-recommended procedures for detecting and characterizing polioviruses from stool and sewage samples collected from AFP cases and the environment, respectively.
The accuracy and quality of testing at GPLN member laboratories is monitored through an annual accreditation programme that ensures they can accurately and reliably detect and characterize the poliovirus. 
Before the introduction of the GPLN Management System, laboratory quality control processes were carried out by email and exchange of scanned documents, making it tedious and time consuming. 
 

Objectives

•  Supports laboratories quality control processes electronically.
•  Coordinate Global, Regional, National and Sub-national laboratories activities.
• Centralize and maintain laboratory core information.