Polioviruses in Apparently Healthy Secondary School Students in FCT Abuja, Nigeria.

In an effort to complement the acute flaccid paralysis surveillance for wild poliovirus in FCT, Abuja, Nigeria stool samples from 200 apparently healthy secondary school students aged between 9-17 years were tested using cell culture technique. A Sabin strain poliovirus type 3 was isolated from a 13 year old female student while 4(0.02%) were positive for non polio enteroviruses consisting of coxsackie B, echovirus 2 and 2 indeterminate. The isolation of Sabin strain of poliovirus is advantageous to the polio eradication program as it is capable of inducing natural immunity in susceptible hosts. Presently there is no vaccine for non polio enteroviruses but as efforts are intensified on poliovirus eradication, there may be need to assess the impact of this group of viruses on the epidemiology of paralysis in children.