STOP teams boost surveillance in Nepal.

The "Stop Transmission of Polio" (STOP) team of surveillance officers, has made significant progress in improving AFP surveillance. Large numbers of district and hospital staff have been trained. In three regions which border India, with low surveillance and high populations, more than twice as many AFP cases were soon being reported to public health officers. The STOP teams are the brainchild of "old smallpox warriors", who were recruited mainly from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in the US to help stop transmission of smallpox in the final phase of eradication. Together with the WHO and ministries of health, CDC has helped with intensified surveillance and immunization activities in endemic countries.