Poliovirus Containment 

The U.S. National Authority for Containment of Poliovirus (NAC), located in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Center for Preparedness and Response in accordance with the World Health Organization (WHO) established the Global Action Plan for Poliovirus Containment (GAPIV). The GAPIV was developed to ensure that the achievements made by the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI) which has eliminated wild poliovirus from most countries worldwide are not undermined by an incident at facilities which handle poliovirus post-eradication. The GAPIV describes the safe handling requirements and community safeguards for facilities that intend to retain wild poliovirus(WPV)/vaccine-derived polioviruses (VDPV) and Sabin/oral poliovirus vaccine (OPV) infectious materials (IM) as well as WPV potentially infectious materials (PIM).

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Scope of Materials Subject to UMN Poliovirus Inventory Reporting

  • Polioviruses
    • Wild polioviruses- naturally occurring isolates known or believed to have circulated persistently in the community. Type 1 poliovirus continues to circulate in endemic areas.
    • Sabin/OPV strains
    • Vaccine-derived polioviruses (VDPVs) are classified with wild polioviruses. VDPVs are rare strains of poliovirus that have genetically mutated from the strain contained in the oral poliovirus vaccine (OPV). They may have circulated in the community (cVDPV) or have replicated for prolonged periods in immunodeficient subjects (iVDPV) or be ambiguous and of unknown origin (aVDPV).
    • Attenuated strains not licensed for use as live vaccines (Cox/Lederle and Koprowski/Wistar series) are classified with wild polioviruses as their clinical properties are unproven.
    • Infectious viruses produced in the laboratory that have capsid sequences from wild polioviruses, unless demonstrably proven to be safer than Sabin strains.
  • Nucleic acids extracted from poliovirus
    • Poliovirus nucleic acid can be handled outside poliovirus containment under the condition that these materials will not be introduced into polio-permissive cells or animals (as defined in GAPIV and the “Guidance for non-poliovirus facilities to minimize risk of sample collections potentially infectious for polioviruses”) with or without transfection reagent.
  • Potentially Infectious Material (PIM)
    • Biological specimens or environmental samples (human respiratory secretions, fecal specimens, sewage, wastewater, standing water, etc. ) collected from areas where polio was endemic at the time of collection or at a time when the OPV was in use.
      • Material is considered potentially infectious for poliovirus based on where and when the specimens were collected, not on the basis of any test results.
    • Products of PIM from PV-permissive cells or experimentally infected polio-susceptible animals.
    • Respiratory or enteric viral isolates obtained from PIM specimens may also be considered as the amplification of other viral isolates in certain cell lines may unintentionally amplify poliovirus. 
       

Responsibilities of Principal Investigators

Principal Investigators must report the acquisition, storage, or discovery of poliovirus materials to the Office of Biotechnology Activities Oversight (OBAO). This reporting of poliovirus materials or PIM will be updated in the UMN poliovirus inventory with the NAC. 

To determine if any materials or biological samples could contain poliovirus subject to inventory reporting requirements, please consult the Global Action Plan for Poliovirus Containment (GAPIV) document or the U.S. National Inventory for Poliovirus Containment: Survey Guidance and Resources document. Additional guidance can be found on the Polio Global Eradication Initiative website, which includes a PIM identification tool to help determine if wild poliovirus or vaccine-derived poliovirus was in circulation or OPV was in use at the time and place of sample collection. 

Poliovirus and PIM material necessary for research or teaching activities must be reported to the OBAO and approved prior to its use in an IBC protocol. Principal Investigators are requested to destroy poliovirus and/or PIM at the conclusion of experiments.
 

UMN Responsibilities

Between 2016-2024, the University of Minnesota (UMN) Office of Biotechnology Activities Oversight (OBAO) coordinated with the CDC to take inventory of any possible poliovirus infectious or potentially infectious materials held at the UMN through use of the CDC online National Inventory for Poliovirus Containment Survey and/or direct communication with institutional staff and leadership. Any changes to investigator’s poliovirus inventory will be reported to the U.S. NAC. All work related to these samples will be reviewed and approved by the Institutional Biosafety Committee (IBC) prior to initiation. Any proposed research activities using materials subject to the GAPIV submitted to the IBC will be evaluated for NAC reporting. 
 

Resources

Global Action Plan for Poliovirus Containment (GAPIV)

U.S. National Inventory for Poliovirus Containment: Survey Guidance and Resources

Polio Global Eradication Initiative

PIM identification tool
 

Contact Information

OBAO Admin
[email protected]

OBAO Director
Gregory Park, Ph.D., CPBCA (BSAA), RBP (ABSA)
[email protected]

Institutional Biosafety Officer
Xiaohong Chen, MS, CBSP
[email protected]