Implications of finding poliovirus in sewers of Brazil and Israel

Wild poliovirus has been detected in the sewers of Brazil and Israel. Fortunately, no cases of poliomyelitis have been reported in either country. Why is poliovirus present in these countries and what are the implications for the eradication effort? Wild type poliovirus (e.g. not vaccine-derived virus) was detected in sewage samples that had been collected in March 2014 at Viracopos International Airport in the State of Sao Paulo. Wild type poliovirus had not been detected in Brazil since 1989 when the last case of poliomyelitis was reported in that country, and has not been found since March 2014. Sequence analysis of the RNA genome of the wild type poliovirus found in the Brazilian sewer indicates that it is closely related to an isolate from a case of poliomyelitis in Equatorial Guinea. It seems likely that this virus was carried to Brazil in the intestine of an infected person who did not have symptoms of paralytic disease (only 1 in 100 poliovirus infections lead to paralysis). This individual might have traveled from Equatorial Guinea to the Brazilian airport where use of the bathroom lead to introduction of poliovirus into the sewer. There have been 8 reported cases of poliomyelitis in Equatorial Guinea in 2014, from which we can extrapolate that there have been approximately 800 infected individuals. Given the number of cases of poliomyelitis that have been reported globally over the past 20 years, it is surprising that virus has not been detected previously in Brazil...
Source: virology blog - Category: Virology Authors: Tags: Basic virology Information Source Type: blogs