Venezuela: PAHO on the suspected polio cases

PAHO has published Epidemiological Update: Detection of Sabin type 3 vaccine poliovirus in a case of Acute Flaccid Paralysis. The situation summary:

On 7 June 2018, the World Health Organization (WHO) International Health Regulations (IHR) Regional Contact Point received an unofficial report on the detection of Sabin type 3 vaccine poliovirus in a sample of a Venezuelan patient with acute flaccid paralysis (AFP). The same day, a request for verification was sent to the Venezuela IHR National Focal Point (NFP).

On 8 June, PAHO/WHO received updated information. The case is a 2-year-and-10-months-old child, with no history of vaccination, resident of an under-immunized indigenous community in Delta Amacuro, Venezuela; with paralysis onset on 29 April 2018. As of 31 May of 2018, the flaccid paralysis persisted in a lower limb. A Sabin type 3 vaccine poliovirus was isolated and typified by the national reference laboratory, the National Institute of Hygiene “Rafael Rangel” (INHRR), in the sample of this patient obtained on 30 April of 2018. The sample will be sent to a regional reference laboratory for confirmatory testing. Other children from the same community were vaccinated in April 2018 with oral bivalent polio vaccine.

The ongoing field investigation identified an 8-year-old girl, resident of the same community with a vaccine history of at least one dose of tOPV, who presented flaccidity in a lower limb. No additional AFP cases have been identified to date through active search for AFP cases carried out in the community.