Oral polio vaccine-associated paralysis in a child despite previous immunization with inactivated virus

Poliovirus by Jason Roberts
Poliovirus by Jason Roberts

Vaccine-associated poliomyelitis caused by the oral poliovirus vaccine is rare, but its occurrence in a healthy, immunocompetent 6-month old child was highly unusual because the child had been previously immunized with two doses of the injected, inactivated poliovirus vaccine (IPV).

The three poliovirus vaccine strains developed by Albert Sabin (OPV, oral poliovirus vaccine) contain mutations which prevent them from causing paralytic disease. When the vaccine is ingested, the viruses replicate in the intestine, and immunity to infection develops. While replicating in the intestinal tract, the vaccine viruses undergo mutation, and OPV recipients excrete neurovirulent polioviruses. These so-called vaccine-derived polioviruses (VDPV) can cause poliomyelitis in the recipient of the vaccine or in a contact. During the years that the Sabin poliovirus vaccines were used in the US, cases of poliomyelitis caused by VDPV occurred at a rate of about 1 per 1.4 million vaccine doses, or 7-8 per year. Once the disease was eradicated from the US in 1979, the only cases of polio were caused by the Sabin vaccine.

To prevent vaccine-associated poliomyelitis, in 1997 the US switched to an immunization schedule consisting of two doses of IPV followed by one dose of OPV. The US then switched to using IPV exclusively in 2000. The child in this case essentially had a polio immunization course similar to that utilized in the US from 1997-2000: two doses of IPV, one dose of OPV. Why did the child develop poliomyelitis?

One clue comes from the fact that after the switch to an IPV-OPV schedule in 1997, there were still three cases of VAPP in 1998 and three in 1999. Another hint comes from a study of immune responses in children given multiple doses of IPV. Most of the children receiving two doses of IPV produced antibodies against types 1 and 2 poliovirus (92 and 94%), but only 74% of children produced antibodies against type 3 poliovirus.

The final piece of information needed to solve this puzzle is that the child in this case had vaccine-associated poliovirus caused by the type 3 strain, which was isolated from his feces.

Therefore, the child in this case most likely did not produce sufficient antibodies to type 3 poliovirus after receiving the two doses of IPV. As a consequence, when he was given OPV, he developed type 3 vaccine-associated poliomyelitis.

This case of VAPP could have been prevented: the child was born in Canada, and as customary in that country since 1995, he received two doses of IPV. At 5 months of age the child and his family visited China, where his parents decided to continue his immunizations according to the local schedule. China still uses OPV, so that is what the child received.

45 thoughts on “Oral polio vaccine-associated paralysis in a child despite previous immunization with inactivated virus”

  1. The polio virus like the 1000’s of other enteroviruses and several trillions of pathological bacteria happily reside in the gut and are regularly excreted. Why humans don’t get immunity to all gut bacteria/viruses or why these microbes don’t cause disease whereas the same microbes wreak havoc in other situations is a question that will not be answered by pharma company funded research.Doing so might blow a big hole in their vaccine propaganda story.

  2. pk, I don’t understand your logic. Are you saying the thousands of children saved by the polio vaccine somehow don’t count towards the evaluation of its success?

  3. Interesting to me. I was given first, the Salk vaccine back in 62. I may have even received one of the boosters. There were mornings that when I woke up, both my arms would fall limply down to my sides. Couldn’t raise them for awhile. An early name for polio was morning paralysis. My father received the 1955 Salk. It has made a mess of him, ALS/Alzheimers-like symptoms and now cancer. It appears something he has is highly contagious, even the dogs he has had in his house over the years die of cancer! There’s more to this polio story than the govt and big pharma wants to admit. In researching the subject I see links to anencephalic births, MS, alzheimers, cancer, and SIDS. Most of what I have found are experiments done with transgenic mice, but I feel the results are also applicable to humans. We need to refund SV40 research and get to the bottom of it!

  4. The first outbreaks of polio were in Mass, right after use of lead based insecticides was started in the same state. The big outbreak that motivated scientists to make a vaccine came when DDT began to be used. These pesticides either caused a mutation in the virus, or took something away from the gut flora that naturally kept polio in check.

  5. Afraid I don’t know Dan, found the information in my own researching. Lead arsenate is the insecticide in question. Lowered immunity is generally the result of ingestion. Suddenly, that which was benign is disease causing. There were other things the US was going through that could be linked to the upswing in polio too, like water chlorination, and the making of white flour.

  6. So it’s just a coincidence that polio has been eradicated from almost everywhere, except where the vaccine has not been able to cover the majority of the population (Nigeria, Pakistan, Somalia, Syria)?

  7. No, the definition of polio was changed once the vaccine was introduced. Previously any viral gut infection with partial paralysis was called polio, after the vaccine came, you had the definition of polio changed to permanent paralysis with a stool or antibody test for three specific types of some arbitrary virus. Its no wonder that as soon as this definition was changed the incidence of polio declined by 95%. Coupled with improvements in sanitation I am not surprised that these three arbitrary viruses are not being detected in most places. Also your statement that the vaccine has not covered the countries mentioned, is incorrect. The vaccine rates in all those countries are similar to their neighborhood with several countries having worse rates. What is special about these countries is that the US wants to spy on them and is using polio vaccination as a cover. So WHO spreads the canard that polio is present only in those countries.

  8. The “three specific types of some artibitrary virus” you refer to are the three known strains of Poliomyelitis which were identified in the 1930s and for which the virologists responsible for that research won a Nobel prize. That the “definition” of the virus was somehow changed as part of a global conspiracy by independent, international teams of clinicians and virologists to help the US government spy on a few developing countries is just nonsense.

    The problem with vaccine coverage in the countries I mentioned (and yes I left out a couple, such as Afghanistan), is that although they do have vaccination programs, some people have been hard to reach, and when you have even very small pockets where people are not vaccinated, the virus can be maintained. In the case of Syria, for example, it has been impossible to continue with vaccination programs during the conflict, so the country has seen a resurgence. In northern Nigeria and Pakistan, on the other hand, the reasons for these unvaccinated pockets are social and cultural – the people have a mistrust of the government and fear that the vaccination programs run by NGOs have some ulterior motives. The Americans do have a lot to answer for in that regard, their operation to capture Bin Laden through a fake vaccination drive did a lot to harm vaccination efforts. But that one irresponsible action by the Americans has harmed the global effort to eradicate polio completely.

    In many ways, vaccines are a victim of their own success – we in developed countries have no concept anymore of how dangerous and deadly the infections diseases that vaccines protect us against can be. Vaccine deniers spreading these myths about vaccination are helping to bring a resurgence of diseases like measles and whooping cough in developed countries where polio is no longer an issue. The people who really suffer are the children, whose misguided parents did not vaccinate them, the infants too young to be vaccinated who can easily die of diseases like whooping cough, and the elderly and immunocompromised. These people are victims of the irresponsibility and recklessness of vaccine hysterics.

  9. Afraid I don’t know Dan, found the information in my own researching.

    Apparently, this research was not so thorough as to uncover who came up with it in the first place.

    Lead arsenate is the insecticide in question.

    I’m well aware of that.

    Lowered immunity is generally the result of ingestion.

    Not really, no.

    Suddenly, that which was benign is disease causing.

    This seems to be an ad hoc multiplication of entities in an attempt to evade the whole question “Hey, when was last endemic?”

    There were other things the US was going through that could be linked to the upswing in polio too, like water chlorination, and the making of white flour.

    I think it would help if you could actually reach first base before waving your hands in a strange attempt to pretend that Rule 7.08(b) has somehow sprung into effect.

  10. Its no wonder that as soon as this definition was changed the incidence of polio declined by 95%.

    This is the most comical torturing of the Greenberg gambit that I’ve ever seen. Hint: When even the Flying Dolphin hosts a page telling you that you’re full of beans, it’s time to reconsider your sales pitch.

  11. That the “definition” of the virus was somehow changed as part of a global conspiracy by independent, international teams of clinicians and virologists to help the US government spy on a few developing countries is just nonsense.

    What it’s attempting to make hay out of is that, as a direct result of the cell-culture techniques that allowed creation of the vaccine in the first place, poliomyelitis changed from a purely clinical diagnosis into one that could be laboratory-confirmed.

    I was going to get into the details of this being an inside-out version of the usual antivaccine-crank “hiding the decline” morbidity–mortality switcheroo, but I get the impression that
    @disqus_BVXMwa1n8n:disqus hasn’t even really bothered to study his own low-rent lines.

  12. The definition of the disease was definitely changed, you cannot go from partial paralysis and ‘lameness surveys’ to residual paralysis and lab confirmation of three specific viruses and claim the infection rate decreases.
    Obviously, you have not visited countries in South Asia or Africa. If you think 100% vaccination rates can be achieved in India and not Pakistan, in Ghana and not Nigeria, in Afghanistan and not Turkmenistan etc. you are dead wrong. All countries mentioned above have large swathes of population in villages who have not

    heard of vaccines, yet WHO finds polio only in countries opposed to the US. Its quite clear to an unbiased observer, there is a political agenda here and no scientific fact.
    Actually we should all thank the Americans for their fake vaccine campaign to get OBL, it showed the entire world, these vaccine efforts are more of a spying operation than anything else.
    Coming to your comment about whopping cough, can you explain why infection rates are going up in the US despite over 90% vaccination rates? Clearly the vaccine is a joke.

  13. “poliomyelitis changed from a purely clinical diagnosis into one that could be laboratory-confirmed”
    It was not just the diagnosis that was changed, the disease definition was changed. In India there were 75 million malaria cases in the 70’s because every fever was considered malaria, but now, we have only 4K because the definition was changed to have a lab confirmation.

  14. Well Boris, both lead and arsenic are mutagenic to mammalian cells, so tell me, just what makes you think that a virus or bacteria would be less susceptible to change, and what makes you think the scenario that you say others, along with me, have postulated is wrong? Lots of possibilities, lets not forget the mutagenic nature of formaldehyde. Oh, and by the way, if you dig around just a little, you’ll find that both lead and arsenic are immunosuppressants. I don’t know much, but I know I am beating the microvermin that has been left in me over the years, mostly via vaccines. Got to say, it’s an odd feeling when infections go in reverse. I have felt changes in all the organs that recent research shows SV40 infects. I’m only 57, nearly half the kids from my kindergarten class who stood in line with me to get the Salk vaccine are already gone! Brain and other cancers, kidney disease, and problems with other organs that SV40 infects that are misdiagnosed, example: liver disease of unknown etiology. Lets hope it isn’t in you too, cause you’d never find your way out of it. You like baseball eh, dad always told me to keep my eye on the ball, but I found that if I did when playing outfield, I sometimes ran into the fence. The ball, in your case, would be big pharma and the researchers they pay to discredit good research. Keep your eye on that ball too long, and there’s that fence. Boom, you join my classmates.

  15. It was not just the diagnosis that was changed, the disease definition was changed.

    This is genuinely impressive. Not only do you fail to understand the script that you’re trying to read from, you seem to be under the impression that a sensible objection to having this pointed out is to double down on the failure.

    In India there were 75 million malaria cases in the 70’s

    Colossal fail.

    because every fever was considered malaria, but now, we have only 4K because the definition was changed to have a lab confirmation.

    See above.

  16. Well Boris, both lead and arsenic are mutagenic to mammalian cells, so tell me, just what makes you think that a virus or bacteria would be less susceptible to change

    Do you mean aside from the part where the first one doesn’t have cells and the second is neither mammalian nor germane to your attempt to salvage the AoA party line that you claim not to have been aware of in the first place?

    Please, please get down to how poliovirus would be caused to mutate by virtue of pesticides.

  17. I have felt changes in all the organs that recent research shows SV40 infects.

    Given that the long-dead SV40 story is predicated on its being tumorigenic (hint: “polyomavirus”), you might want to get that whole Stage IV thing checked out.

    But do tell me about “all the organs” and all the “recent research.” In humans, given how the whole hamster thing panned out. And the 65% homology with the caribou virus. Do not advance anything that involves cross-reactivity with BKV.

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  19. What’s worse… the fact that you apparently didn’t understand what the article above was actually talking about before posting, or the fact that 10 other head-bobbing knuckleheads upvoted your comment because they like hearing their uninformed opinions substantiated by other uninformed opinions?

  20. In the 1960 I was one of the children that was used to test the oral polio vaccine in canada. I had had polio in 1956, although a mild case. What I am looking for is some information about the effects this trial had on is children, I have not really been able to find my h information. my doctors arent interested in talking about this as. possible cause to my ailments. I am now in my early 60s…..any information would be appreciated

  21. wow, you managed to blame a vaccine for anencephaly, SIDS, cancer, and alzheimers. lol. You forgot Autism!! Why not blame all vaccines for earthquakes and tsunamis while your at it. Oh and I just read another one of your posts on diquis, apparently you have river blindness too. Sounds to me like you may have Munchausen syndrome. I recommend you get your head checked by a psychologist before you rack up those medical bills for symptoms that aren’t there, lol. 😉

  22. Medical bills? I have declared my independence from the AMA quacks, and I’m improving greatly with the herbals God has given me in the thousands of acres of forest that I live in the midst of. Psychologists are even worse than AMA physicians. I do have the onchocerca, been an interesting adventure, oh ye of little understanding. Once SV40 turns off p53, the door is open for all sorts of pathogenic vermin, including anything live that a vaccine contains. However there’s little to no immune response to let you know something is in there. Sounds to me like you need to do some more investigation.

  23. (ノ ゜Д゜)ノ ︵ ┻━┻ . You’re just another TWIV troll. You honestly believe you contracted onchocerciasis from skinning a deer??!?! How exactly? Because last time I checked, river blindness is transmitted to humans by a fly vector. Have you seen a doctor who specializes in tropical diseases/medicine? Nope, of course you haven’t. Why would you do that? A doctor who knows what he’s looking at could easily tell you its a filarial worm. Of course you wouldn’t go to a doctor, because when he proves you don’t have it, you’ll have one less ailment to complain about. Why do you even come to TWIV? This site is meant to educate people about viruses and clearly you’re beyond the capability of being educated. You’re bogus beliefs are already cemented in your brain. AND btw, did you ever stop to think that your entire presence on TWIV is insulting, because it is. You have absolutely nothing to add to this conversation..you’re just another anti-vaxxer. If you actually had all the answers you claim to have, you wouldn’t be on here looking for an audience. How is it that anti-vaxxers end up on awesome sites like TWIV. Ugh. Just go away.

  24. I really don’t care what you believe. That I got the Salk is beyond a doubt. Over half my 1962 kindergarten class is already gone, many to cancer, some to kidney disease initiated by SV40. That I got the onchocerca is beyond a doubt. Cut myself as I cut the deer’s throat and a couple more times while cleaning & cutting it up. They’re out there, and they’re in more people than what you realize. That’s because most ignorant physicians believe as you do, there’s no such thing here in the US. A very naive belief, as they exist on the other continents. It takes p53 to fight helminths, and SV40 turns that off. One more thing, I don’t care if you are insulted, you and anyone like you mean nothing to me, for all I care the worms can have you. You’d never know you had them, I wouldn’t know had I not accidentally killed a multitude of microfilaria in my lymphatic system. I am getting better taking things that kill helminths and microfilaria, some that are pretty specific for microfilaria. Wonder why? May the SV-40 large T-antigen be with you always!

  25. If there were any effects from it, at this stage of the game, they’d just attribute what problems you might have to age.

  26. Pingback: Laos: Boy Killed by Polio Vaccine, Disease Resurfaces with Vaccine-Derived Virus | Word Matters!

  27. Drkrantianand Anand

    My husbands brother had paralytic polio so when I was pregnant and after delivery of my daughter, I kept my daughter away from him until all her immunisation was over so my mother in law does not like me and her naw, i wonder if it is crime to be healthy or take care of your health.I am scared about this disease, I don’t understand how to explain my fear to them. I still feel this disease exists.

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  29. Pingback: What to believe? Science is a red herring and a wild-goose chase « Skepticism about science and medicine

  30. “If you think 100% vaccination rates can be achieved in India and not Pakistan, in Ghana and not Nigeria, in Afghanistan and not Turkmenistan etc. you are dead wrong.”

    It is not necessary to vaccinate everyone in a country to eradicate polio. Only the people who could potentially come in contact with a case need to be vaccinated.

    Most of those getting whooping cough in the US have not been vaccinated. Increasing vaccination rates and having adults (for whom immunity may have waned) get a pertussis booster can help reduce outbreaks. Adults need at least one Tdap (tetanus, diphtheria, pertussis) and then every ten years the tetanus and diphtheria booster (Td).

  31. There is a mysterious polio like illness spreading here in Wa. State. State officials are investigating a “potential cluster” of acute flaccid myelitis, a highly infectious polio-like disease that primarily strikes children. This is very scary. My question to anyone here is, do you think it is vaccine related??!! Of course CDC has not and in my opinion probably won’t admit it. They are scandalous!! A 6 yr old boy just recently died because of this so called “mysterious” illness.

  32. the boy who died was vaccinated two weeks prior to his sickness if you google the boy’s name you will find an article mentioning that.

  33. Thank you for this info. I have contacted my local health department of my concern and of course their response was that vaccines have absolutely nothing to do with it.

  34. Pingback: Infowars Reporter Debunks The Young Turks’ Scientist | Citizen Journalist TV

  35. Your statement is offensive, intentionally so. Vaccines are safe and effective, they save lives, they do not and never have been shown to cause autism.

  36. How can you be naive the cdc admits it on thier website..they list two possible symptoms and if you logically put them together its autism.

  37. Pingback: What to believe? Science is a red herring and a wild-goose chase | Tegenwicht Platform

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