WHO collaborative studies on poliovirus type 3 strains isolated during the 1968 poliomyelitis epidemic in Poland^*

Abstract

In 1968 in Poland an extensive outbreak of poliomyelitis, caused by type 3 poliovirus, began about four months after small vaccine trials with the Leon 12a₁b (Sabin) and USOL-D bac vaccine strains had been carried out. Because of the temporal association, and because the first cases appeared in the province in which the USOL-D vaccine trial was carried out, a detailed investigation of the strains isolated from cases in the epidemic was made in four laboratories in an attempt to determine whether they were related to the two vaccine strains or to a “wild” strain. All the studies were made under code. The rct marker was of no help in determining the relationship of the epidemic strains to the vaccine strains. The McBride test and the elution marker test clearly separated the Leon 12a₁b strains from those from the cases, but were incapable of detecting whether the epidemic strains were related to the USOL-D bac strain or to wild type 3 strains. Thus the studies did not provide valid information on the origin of the epidemic.