[Considerations concerning the 1st outbreak of poliomyelitis in the city of Orizaba, Veracruz].

The objective is to present some deliberations on the paralytic poliomyelitis outbreak in the city of Orizaba, Veracruz. Fifty years after its occurrence, the original report of the first paralytic poliomyelitis epidemic in Mexico is presented herein. The detailed description of this outbreak by the authors reflects the devoted task of public health workers and clinicians who promptly identified an abnormal pattern of disease considered exotic in Mexico at that time. Unfortunately, this outbreak was the beginning of what proved to be an endemic disease with over 9,000 cases being reported in the ensuing ten years; some studies place the incidence figures three-to-fivefold higher. Fifty years after this outbreak, wild polio virus has been eradicated in Mexico and with it, the virtual eradication of paralytic poliomyelitis.