A Pneumonia Case Associated with Type 2 Polio Vaccine Strains

Li, Mao-Zhong; Zhang, Tie-Gang; Li, Ai-Hua; Luo, Ming; Jiao, Yang; Dong, Mei; Gong, Cheng; Huang, Fang

Since the World Health Assembly endorsed a plan to completely eradicate polio in 1988, the large-scale use of the attenuated oral poliovirus vaccine (OPV) has drastically decreased the number of polio cases. However, the OPV vaccine brings rare but serious adverse consequences, especially in the Type 2 vaccine strains. Most vaccine-associated paralytic poliomyelitis (VAPP) outbreaks are associated with Type 2 polio vaccine strains, and approximately 26-31% of genetically divergent vaccine-derived polioviruses (VDPVs) cases are associated with the Type 2 component of OPV. [1, 2] Other than VAPP cases and VDPVs, Type 2 polio vaccine strains can also cause a variety of illnesses. [3] To the best of our knowledge, no cases of pneumonia resulting from Type 2 polio vaccine strains have been reported. However, here we report an infant case associated with the Type 2 polio vaccine strain.