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.