Vaccine-derived poliomyelitis 12 years after infection in Minnesota

N Engl J Med. 2011 Jun 16;364(24):2316-23. doi: 10.1056/NEJMoa1008677.

Abstract

A 44-year-old woman with long-standing common variable immunodeficiency who was receiving intravenous immune globulin suddenly had paralysis of all four limbs and the respiratory muscles, resulting in death. Type 2 vaccine-derived poliovirus was isolated from stool. The viral capsid protein VP1 region had diverged from the vaccine strain at 12.3% of nucleotide positions, and the two attenuating substitutions had reverted to the wild-type sequence. Infection probably occurred 11.9 years earlier (95% confidence interval [CI], 10.9 to 13.2), when her child received the oral poliovirus vaccine. No secondary cases were identified among close contacts or 2038 screened health care workers. Patients with common variable immunodeficiency can be chronically infected with poliovirus, and poliomyelitis can develop despite treatment with intravenous immune globulin.

Publication types

  • Case Reports
  • Research Support, U.S. Gov't, P.H.S.

MeSH terms

  • Adult
  • Amino Acid Sequence
  • Common Variable Immunodeficiency / complications*
  • Fatal Outcome
  • Feces / virology
  • Female
  • Humans
  • Infectious Disease Incubation Period*
  • Magnetic Resonance Imaging
  • Poliomyelitis / diagnosis
  • Poliomyelitis / etiology*
  • Poliovirus / genetics
  • Poliovirus / immunology
  • Poliovirus / isolation & purification*
  • Poliovirus Vaccine, Oral / adverse effects*
  • Poliovirus Vaccine, Oral / immunology
  • Sequence Alignment
  • Spinal Cord / pathology

Substances

  • Poliovirus Vaccine, Oral