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A new report suggests that the Chinese facility linked to the COVID-19 outbreak may have also leaked a “highly evolved” strain of polio.
The strain that infected a 4-year-old boy in Anhui province is 99% identical to a variant stored at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, located 200 miles away. The child contracted the strain amid a larger virus outbreak in Anhui. Molecular biologist Richard Ebright, who did not participate in the study, highlighted that these findings reveal the concerning safety standards in global virology research.
The origins of the polio strain WIV14 remain unclear, with some researchers questioning if it definitely came from the Wuhan facility. The Pasteur Institute in Paris suggests it may stem from a 1950s strain used in vaccine development.
Concerns persist due to the lab’s safety record and the proximity of Anhui province to Wuhan. If linked to the Chinese facility, this would add to a series of safety breaches, leading the Biden administration to cut funding for the lab last year following a congressional investigation.
In 2022, after a polio case in a 4-year-old boy in Anhui, China, polio reemerged in the U.S. for the first time in a decade, with the virus detected over 70 times in New York sewage. Researchers at the Pasteur Institute found that the WIV14 polio strain’s genome differs from the “Saukett A” strain used in most vaccines by only 70 nucleotides out of more than 7,000.
According to the CDC, about 1 out of 4 people with poliovirus infection will have flu-like symptoms that can include:
- Sore throat
- Fever
- Tiredness
- Nausea
- Headache
- Stomach pain
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