Vaccine-induced polioencephalomyelitis in Scotland.

ABSTRACT

A six-month-old British female, living in Glasgow was admitted in June 1986 with a four-day history of fever and lower limb weakness following immunisation with oral polio and triple (DTP) vaccines. Examination revealed paralysis of all limbs, facial muscles and right diaphragm, scoliosis, opsoclonus and ocular flutter. Poliovirus types 1, 2 and 3, isolated from her stool specimens were all vaccine-like strains. Her serial serum IgA levels were persistently low and salivary IgA was undetectable. This appears to be the first fully authenticated case of poliovaccine damage in Scotland. It is unclear whether the selective IgA deficiency contributed to her vulnerability. It is essential to investigate elaborately and process viral isolates in every suspected case of acute poliomyelitis so as to determine the dimension and ramifications of poliovaccine damage in the UK population which is known to be rather apprehensive about vaccine dangers.