Man Sheds Vaccine-Derived Poliovirus for 28 Years

Chronic virus excreters may complicate polio eradication efforts Chronic excreters are extremely rare. Only 73 have been identified since 1962. The man described in the study is the only one known to be excreting virus at present, and the only one to have produced vaccine-derived virus for such a long period of time, Martin and colleagues said. However, vaccine-derived virus strains likely originating from immunodeficient individuals have been discovered in sewage samples in Slovakia, Finland, Estonia, and Israel, "indicating that an unknown number of these chronic excreters exist elsewhere," Martin and colleagues said. http://www.medpagetoday.com/InfectiousDisease/GeneralInfectiousDisease/53272?xid=nl_mpt_DHE_2015-08-28&eun=g721819d0r