Prolonged detection of indigenous wild polioviruses in sewage from communities in Egypt.
Environmental surveillance for polioviruses has been implemented in Egypt. This paper reports on a study in which 130 sewage samples were collected between January 2001 and December 2001 from eight provinces of Egypt. Samples were analyzed by virus isolation in L20B and RD cell cultures, and wild polioviruses were characterized by sequencing of the VP1 protein coding region. Wild type 1 polioviruses were detected in 57% of the sewage samples and 91% of the study sites, only two of which reported paralytic poliomyelitis cases in 2001. Three genetic lineages of a single indigenous type 1 poliovirus genotype were detectable in sewage, and only one lineage was also detected through surveillance for acute flaccid paralysis. Wild polioviruses persisted in the environment despite implementation of oral poliovirus vaccine immunization campaigns. Continued analysis of sewage samples, critical evaluation of immunization coverage, and performance of surveillance for acute flaccid paralysis are proposed as follow-up activities.
El Bassioni
Laila
L
Egyptian Organization for Biological Products and Vaccine Production, Cairo, Egypt.
Barakat
Ibrahim
I
Nasr
Eman
E
de Gourville
Esther M
EM
Hovi
Tapani
T
Blomqvist
Soile
S
Burns
Cara
C
Stenvik
Mirja
M
Gary
Howard
H
Kew
Olen M
OM
Pallansch
Mark A
MA
Wahdan
Mohamed H
MH
D000293:Adolescent; D002648:Child; D004534:Egypt / Q000453:epidemiology; D004783:Environmental Microbiology; D006801:Humans; D011051:Poliomyelitis / Q000453:epidemiology; D017955:Poliovirus / Q000145:classification / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D020133:Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction; D012722:Sewage / Q000821:virology*; D014871:Water Microbiology
D012722:Sewage