A Cluster of Paralytic Poliomyelitis Cases Due to Transmission of Slightly Diverged Sabin 2 Vaccine Poliovirus

Abstract

Four cases of acute flaccid paralysis caused by slightly evolved (Sabin-like) vaccine polioviruses of serotype 2 were registered in July to August 2010 in an orphanage of Biysk (Altai Region, Russia). The Biysk cluster of vaccine-associated paralytic poliomyelitis (VAPP) had several uncommon, if not unique, features. (i) Until this outbreak, Sabin-like viruses (in distinction to more markedly evolved vaccine-derived polioviruses [VDPVs]) were reported to cause only sporadic cases of VAPP. Consequently, VAPP cases were not considered to require outbreak-type responses. However, the Biysk outbreak completely blurred the borderline between Sabin-like viruses and VDPVs in epidemiological terms. (ii) The outbreak demonstrated a very high disease/infection ratio, apparently exceeding even that reported for wild polioviruses. The viral genome structures did not provide any substantial hints as to the underlying reason(s) for such pathogenicity. (iii) The replacement of intestinal poliovirus lineages by other Sabin-like lineages during short intervals after the disease onsets was observed in two patients. Again, the sequences of the respective genomes provided no clues to explain these events. (iv) The polioviruses isolated from the patients and their contacts demonstrated a striking heterogeneity as well as rapid and uneven evolution of the whole genomes and their parts, apparently due to extensive interpersonal contacts in a relatively small closed community, multiple bottlenecking, and recombination. Altogether, the results demonstrate several new aspects of pathogenicity, epidemiology, and evolution of vaccine-related polioviruses and underscore several serious gaps in understanding these problems.

Importance: The oral poliovirus vaccine largely contributed to the nearly complete disappearance of poliovirus-caused poliomyelitis. Being generally safe, it can, in some cases, result in a paralytic disease. Two types of such outcomes are distinguished: those caused by slightly diverged (Sabin-like) viruses on the one hand and those caused by significantly diverged VDPVs on the other. This classification is based on the number of mutations in the viral genome region encoding a viral structural protein. Until now, only sporadic poliomyelitis cases due to Sabin-like polioviruses had been described, and in distinction from the VDPV-triggered outbreaks, they did not require broad-scale epidemiological responses. Here, an unusual outbreak of poliomyelitis caused by a Sabin-like virus is reported, which had an exceptionally high disease/infection ratio. This outbreak blurred the borderline between Sabin-like polioviruses and VDPVs both in pathogenicity and in the kind of responses required, as well as underscoring important gaps in understanding the pathogenicity, epidemiology, and evolution of vaccine-derived polioviruses.