News outlets report on a paper published in PLOS Pathogens that discusses the case of a British man who has excreted live poliovirus for nearly three decades and the implications for the disease’s global eradication.

BBC News: Polio: Vaccinated man ‘has spread polio,’ say British scientists
“A British man who was vaccinated against polio has been producing the virus for nearly 30 years. He had an immune disorder that meant the weakened polio virus used to vaccinate him in childhood survived in his body. Over time it has mutated into a form of the virus that can cause paralysis…” (8/27).

NPR: A Man Shed Live Polio Virus In His Stool For 28 Years
“…So even as the world gets ready to breathe a sigh of relief when polio is wiped from the last two countries still reporting cases, people shouldn’t let their guard down. ‘We are at the end stage of polio eradication,’ says [Javier Martin, biologist at the National Institute for Biological Standards and Control in the U.K. and author of the study]. ‘But we still need to continue high immunization coverage and surveillance’…” (Brink, 8/27).