Detection of non‐polio enteroviruses from 17 years of virological surveillance of acute flaccid paralysis in the Philippines

Acute flaccid paralysis (AFP) surveillance has been conducted as part of the World Health Organization (WHO) strategy on poliomyelitis eradication. Aside from poliovirus, which is the target pathogen, isolation, and identification of non-polio enteroviruses (NPEVs) is also done by neutralization test using pools of antisera which can only identify limited number of NPEVs. In the Philippines, despite the significant number of isolated NPEVs, no information is available with regard to its occurrence, diversity, and pattern of circulation. In this study, a total of 790 NPEVs isolated from stool samples submitted to the National Reference Laboratory from 1992 to 2008 were analyzed; neutralization test was able to type 55% (442) of the isolates. Of the remaining 356 isolates, which were untyped by using neutralization test, 348 isolates were analyzed further by RT-PCR targeting the VP1 gene. A total of 47 serotypes of NPEV strains were identified using neutralization test and molecular typing, including 28 serotypes of human enterovirus B (HEV-B), 12 serotypes of HEV-A, and 7 of HEV-C. The HEV-B group (625/790; 79%) constituted the largest proportion of isolates, followed by HEV-C (108/790; 13.7%), HEV-A (57/790; 7.2%), and no HEV-D. Coxsackievirus (CV) B, echovirus (E)6, E11, and E13 were the most frequent isolates. E6, E11, E13, E14, E25, E30, E33, CVA20, and CVA24 were considered as endemic strains, some NPEVs recurred and few serotypes existed only for 1-3 years during the study period. Despite some limitations in this study, plural NPEVs with multiple patterns of circulation in the Philippines for 17 years were identified.