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Polio? What's that?

CFLarsen

Penultimate Amazing
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Global Polio Eradication Now Hinges On Four Countries

The world's success in eradicating polio now depends on four countries -- Afghanistan, India, Nigeria, and Pakistan -- according to the Advisory Committee on Polio Eradication (ACPE), the independent oversight body of the eradication effort.

With a targeted vaccine and faster ways of tracking the virus, most countries that recently suffered outbreaks are again polio-free. In parts of the four endemic countries, however, there is a persistent failure to vaccinate all children, and polio-free countries are considering new measures to help protect themselves from future outbreaks.
...
"Polio eradication hinges on vaccine supply, community acceptance, funding and political will. The first three are in place. The last will make the difference," said Dr Robert Scott, Chair of Rotary International's PolioPlus Committee, speaking on behalf of the spearheading partners of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative.
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Circulation of wild poliovirus: Since 1988, global polio eradication efforts reduced the number of polio cases from 350,000 annually to 1403 in 2006 (as at 10 October 2006), of which 1300 are in the four endemic countries (where poliovirus transmission has never been stopped): Nigeria, India, Afghanistan and Pakistan. This is the lowest number of endemic countries in history.
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We are almost there, people...
 
CFLarsen said:
But they wont. Will they? ;)
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I hope not. Vaccinations generally took a dip after the MMR scare in the UK, but recent figures show an increase in use.

Apart from that, there hasn't been much anti-vax hysteria in the UK, but I believe the issue is quite serious in the USA?
 
tkingdoll said:
I hope not. Vaccinations generally took a dip after the MMR scare in the UK, but recent figures show an increase in use.

Apart from that, there hasn't been much anti-vax hysteria in the UK, but I believe the issue is quite serious in the USA?
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To a degree. But that's where we, as skeptics, must step in.

Right?
 
I'm going to Angola on Thursday and I was told I had to have a polio vaccine just to make sure I didn't get it. The doc said that whole area of Africa is pretty bad. I'm going to be angry if I become autistic.
 
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CFLarsen said:
To a degree. But that's where we, as skeptics, must step in.

Right?
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We do. I personally have contributed to literature supporting vaccination, and the publicising of it.

And anti-vaccination will be the topic of another factsheet similar to the Chiropractic one, just as soon as there is time :)
 
Fronzel said:
I'm going to Angola on Thursday and I was told I had to have a polio vaccine just to make sure I didn't get it. The doc said that whole area of Africa is pretty bad. I'm going to be angry if I become autistic.
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Will we be able to tell?
 
Whooping cough is a problem here now. Kids are dying from it.
Whooping cough is the only vaccine preventable disease in the US where the fatalities are increasing
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http://www.ssr.com/cgi-bin/ezmlm-cgi?1:msp:111342:imoonkdgkjbioggmmmoe

I'm glad polio hasn't made a comeback. No cases of paralytic polio around here. Just need to finish the job and irradicate it. Then the vaccine won't be needed anymore. Hopefully that would make the anitvaxxers happy. Wonder if they will still say it was "just better sanitary conditions" that irradicated it, even though it will be the use of vaccination in those countries that will.

Since 1988, global polio eradication efforts reduced the number of polio cases from 350,000 annually to 1403 in 2006
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Wow, that's the best news I've heard in weeks!
 
You claim it, show why you know it. Too lazy to back up your opinion just a wee bit?

Fine.

Red Cross fights polio in Indonesia:
http://www.redcross.org/pressrelease/0,1077,0_489_4990,00.html
Ten years after being declared polio free, Indonesia has seen the reemergence of this highly infectious but preventable disease.

This campaign is supported by the American Red Cross and its partners, the World Health Organization, UNICEF, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, United Nations Foundation, Rotary International and the Indonesian Red Cross Society (Palang Merah Indonesia). Other participants include local communities, government and human service agencies and the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies. ]
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Resistance to polio vaccine has not been the same as for MMR vaccine. Most resistance has been in Nigeria where muslim leaders have spread the word that Western powers have put a kind of sterilization agent into the vaccien in order to stop muslims from multiplying. One state in Nigeria actually had an official stop for vaccinations for a period. The problem was exacerbated when some vaccine turned out to be worthless, probably because it had not been stored properly.

Fortunately, this scare has passed after a reliable muslim producer of vaccines has been found, and Nigeria is now again part of the Polio Eradication Program. But through Nigeria, polio has been reintroduced in many African states where it was previously eradicated, and vaccination had eased off.

In fact, the money problem is the greatest danger to Polio Eradication. Many people in the third world wonder if the money is best spent on polio eradication. After all, polio only produces symptoms in 1 or 2 persons out of 100, and there are so many other diseases that have a much higher death rate. Even the developed world is in danger of stumbling just before the goal: One of the most important reasons for supporting Polio Eradication has been the great savings that could be achieved once polio was gone forever. But these days polio vaccine is often given as part of a mix of vaccines, and in this form the vaccine is very cheap and eliminating polio will not result in savings that are worth mentioning.

Besides, the most effective vaccine with live virus has increasingly been proven to be dangerous when it mutates back into a virulent form. This has happened in the past few years, and could cause a withdrawal of the vaccine, so that only a much less efficent vaccine can be used. The live vaccine had the added bonus that through the normal means of infection it could immunize people who had not been vaccinated, and a reversion to a virulent form was acceptable because these cases were nothing in comparison to the lives saved from the wild virus. However, when the world population is no longer exposed to any kind of polio virus, the live vaccine could turn out to be more dangerous than the risk of running into wild virus could warrant.

In Africa the war in Congo delayed polio eradication for many years. Today, Afghanistan is again slipping into chaos, and polio eradication could be one of the least health problems faced by the Afghan population.

The world is so close to eradicating a dangerous and debilitating disease. We can only hope that the last big effort will succeed despite the challenging conditions!
 
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