|
|
 |
|||||
 |
|
||||
|
October 2005 Minnesota Department of Health officials and the CDC are investigating a reported case of poliovirus infection in an infant from central Minnesota. The infant, hospitalized for previously diagnosed immune system problems, excreted a variant of the virus found in the oral polio vaccine (OPV). The OPV is still used in some parts of the world but not in the United States. It is the first reported case of polio in the United States since 2000. The infant shows no signs of the paralytic illness associated with poliovirus, which is transmitted through direct contact with stool or oral secretions of an infected person. No further information on the child’s condition is available. Kris Ehresmann, head of the Immunization, Tuberculosis and Immigrant Health Section at the Minnesota Department of Health, said the virus was discovered through routine stool testing for enteroviruses. Samuel L. Katz, MD, the Wilburt Cornell Davison Professor and chairman emeritus of pediatrics at Duke University, speculated on possible infection origins. “Most of the resource poor countries in the Americas, Africa and Asia continue to use OPV so that an infant adopted from one of these could have received OPV before coming to the states, or that a U.S.-born infant could have had contact with an OPV recipient from one of these nations who then transmitted the virus to this infant,” Katz told Infectious Disease News. There is limited risk to the general public, according to Ehresmann, but the case serves as a reminder to stay current with immunizations. ProMED-mail, the Program for Monitoring Emerging Diseases, is a program of the International Society for Infectious Diseases. For further information and free subscription, go to www.promedmail.org. |
