Surveillance and Characterizations of VDPV in China

Yong Zhang of the National Institute for Viral Disease Control and Prevention in China will characterize vaccine-derived polioviruses (VDPV), which emerge from the widely used oral polio vaccine and can cause disease outbreaks, to aid surveillance and eradication efforts. Polio has been largely eradicated from many countries by vaccination. However, the vaccine itself is an attenuated form of the poliovirus that can revert back to a virulent form. In Phase I, they sequenced and compared the genomes of different types of VDPVs that have emerged in China to determine how the virus arises and circulates in the population. In Phase II, they will sequence more VDPVs and look for so-called mutation hotspots in the genome, which could lead to a safer and more effective vaccine.