Vaccine-Associated Paralytic Poliomyelitis and BCG-osis in an Immigrant Child with Severe Combined Immunodeficiency Syndrome — Texas, 2013

Poliovirus transmission has been eliminated in most of the world through the use of inactivated poliovirus vaccine (IPV) and live, attenuated oral poliovirus vaccine (OPV). In the United States, use of OPV was discontinued by the year 2000 because of the potential for vaccine-associated paralytic polio (VAPP); an average of eight cases were reported each year in the United States during 1980-2000. Polio eradication efforts in other parts of the world continue to rely on OPV to take advantage of transmission of poliovirus vaccine strains to unvaccinated persons in the population, lower cost, and ease of administration. In 2013, an infant aged 7 months who recently immigrated to the United States from India was referred to a hospital in San Antonio, Texas. The infant had fever, an enlarging skin lesion in the deltoid region with axillary lymphadenopathy, decreased activity, and inability to bear weight on the left leg, progressing to paralysis of the left leg over a 6-week period. Recognition of lymphopenia on complete blood count led to immune evaluation, which revealed the presence of severe combined immunodeficiency syndrome (SCIDS), an inherited disorder. A history of OPV and bacille Calmette-Guérin (BCG) vaccination in India led to the diagnoses of VAPP and BCG-osis, which were confirmed microbiologically. This report demonstrates the importance of obtaining a comprehensive clinical history in a child who has recently immigrated to the United States, with recognition that differing vaccine practices in other countries might require additional consideration of potential etiologies.