By NewsDesk @infectiousdiseasenews
According to the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI), two positive circulating vaccine-derived poliovirus type 1 (cVDPV1) environmental samples were reported from Manila in the National Capital Region. They were collected on 23 September 2019.
On 19 September 2019, an outbreak of polio was declared in the Philippines. Two human polio cases (VPDV2) were reported in the Philippines last month in a three-year-old girl from Lanao del Sur and a five-year-old boy from Laguna.
The last known case of wild poliovirus recorded in the Philippines was in 1993. The country was declared wild polio-free in 2000.
According to GPEI, Vaccine-derived polioviruses (VDPVs) are rare strains of poliovirus that have genetically mutated from the strain contained in the oral polio vaccine. The oral polio vaccine contains a live, attenuated(weakened) vaccine-virus. When a child is vaccinated,the weakened vaccine-virus replicates in the intestine and enters into the bloodstream, triggering a protective immune response in the child. Like wild poliovirus, the child excretes the vaccine-virus for a period of six to eight weeks. Importantly, as it is excreted, some of the vaccine-virus may no longer be the same as the original vaccine-virus as it has genetically altered during replication. This is called a VDPV.
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