Polio updates

[waltky]

Mutated virus caused lethal outbreak of polio in Africa...

Study Reveals Chink in Polio Vaccine’s Armor
August 18, 2014: A mutated polio virus that slipped through vaccine defenses caused an unusually lethal outbreak in the Republic of Congo in 2010, according to a new study.

An intensive vaccination campaign was able to stop the virus. But the authors say their research shows new and dangerous strains may emerge as polio eradication nears, and high rates of vaccination are the best available protection.

Weaker vaccine

Polio usually paralyzes its victims. It is not typically fatal. But in the Republic of Congo outbreak, nearly half of the 445 people who got sick with the virus died. Health workers were especially concerned because about half of the patients remembered having been vaccinated. “That made it even more bizarre, because if they had been vaccinated, they shouldn’t be sick,” said virologist Felix Drexler at the University of Bonn. When Drexler and colleagues in Europe and Africa studied the virus, they found it had some never-before-seen mutations in a critical part of its outer coat. Those mutations were in the place where antibodies that fight the virus would normally attach.

A boy suffering from polio crawls beside his braces in Kinshasa, capital of the Democratic Republic of the Congo

“We thought, ‘Wow, maybe that could affect the ability of the antibodies in human blood to neutralize the virus,’” Drexler said. It did. When they tested the virus in Germany against blood samples from people with better-than-average vaccination coverage, they found that 15 to 29 percent of them would not be protected from the mutant strain. The research is published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Virus stopped

The Republic of Congo had been polio free before the outbreak. It took four nationwide immunization drives targeting every man, woman and child to stop the mutated virus. Drexler said the effort worked because just about everyone got vaccinated with the most potent form of the vaccine. The virus has not been seen since, though Drexler said it’s possible it’s still lurking out there somewhere. And, he added, there may be others that also can evade the vaccine's protection. Experts say polio eradication is in its final stages. There have been fewer than 150 cases anywhere in the world this year, and the virus is found regularly in just three countries.

Good enough?

But, Drexler noted, “The question that the experts are asking is, 'Is the vaccine good enough to enable us to eradicate poliovirus?'” Virologist Olen Kew with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says it is. He was not involved with this study. He noted that the vaccine has eliminated the virus everywhere it has been used. “What happened in Congo was, it hadn’t been used for quite a long period of time and a susceptible group opened up,” he said. Civil unrest disrupted vaccination campaigns in the 1990s and early 2000s. “And when the virus was introduced, it had devastating effects.”

Kew said the reason the virus was so deadly was because the susceptible group was young adults, not the children who are usually affected. “It’s been known for a long time that older age groups, once they get infected, can have more severe disease than younger children,” he said. Associate Director Walt Orenstein at the Emory Vaccine Center, who was also not involved in the study, said more potent vaccines would be helpful to protect against mutated viruses. However, he added, “I think the most important message, to me, is, we need to push hard and push fast and terminate transmission as quickly as possible, in which case this becomes irrelevant.”

Study Reveals Chink in Polio Vaccine’s Armor

 

[waltky]

Polio Hits Record High In Pakistan...

Record High Polio Cases in Pakistan
October 04, 2014 ~ The number of polio cases recorded in Pakistan this year has hit a record high.

An official with the Pakistan National Institute of Health in Islamabad says 202 cases have been reported so far this year, surpassing the previous record of 199 in one year. A health official told the French news agency AFP Friday that 15 cases of polio had been reported in the past two days.

About 60 polio vaccination workers have been killed by militants since 2012, mainly in the restive northwestern tribal areas that border Afghanistan and are home to Taliban and al-Qaida militants. The new cases have emerged in these areas. Militants accuse the polio workers of being Western spies or part of a plot to sterilize Muslims.

A Pakistani health worker administers the polio vaccine to a child during a vaccination campaign in Bannu

The World Health Organization says polio is endemic in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Nigeria. The WHO says as long as a single child remains infected, children in all countries are at risk of contracting polio.

Polio is a highly infectious disease caused by a virus that mainly affects children under the age of five. It invades the nervous system and can cause total paralysis in hours. There is no cure for polio, it can only be prevented. Polio vaccine, given multiple times, can protect a child for life.

Record High Polio Cases in Pakistan

 

[waltky]

Polio Eradication Reaches Major Milestone...

Polio eradication programme reaches 'major milestone'
14 November 2014 ~ A "major milestone" in the battle to eliminate polio globally has been reached, the US Centres for Disease Control (CDC) has said.

Its experts think a second of the three forms of poliovirus has been eliminated after mass vaccination campaigns. Wild poliovirus type 3 has not been detected for more than two years. Type 2 was eradicated in 1999. Experts said the world was "closer than ever" to defeating polio but the situation in Pakistan was worrying. Polio is highly infectious and causes paralysis in up to one in 200 people. Some children die when the muscles that help them breathe stop working. But there has been huge progress in eliminating the disease. Cases have fallen from 350,000 in 1988 to 416 in 2013. The last case of type 3 poliovirus was detected in Pakistan in November 2012, according to the CDC report.

Experts said the world was "closer than ever" to defeating polio but the situation in Pakistan was worrying

Endemic

"We may have eradicated a second of three; that's a major milestone," said Dr Stephen Cochi, a senior adviser at the CDC's Centre for Global Health. However, a formal process - involving the Polio Global Certification Commission - is required before type 3 can be officially declared eradicated. That will not take place for at least another year. Type 1 remains endemic in three countries - Pakistan, Afghanistan and Nigeria. Dr Cochi told the BBC: "It's the most prickly one. For reasons that are unclear, this is the most common cause of polio outbreaks and the most frequent cause of paralytic polio." There has been progress in Nigeria, where cases have fallen to six so far this year from 53 in 2013. "But our biggest problem is getting worse in Pakistan," said Dr Cochi. Cases have leap from 59 last year to 236 and counting in 2014.

Mass exodus

The Pakistani Taliban stopped polio vaccination programmes in some tribal areas of the country for about two years. Since the summer there has been a mass exodus of people from the region after military operations by Pakistan's army. Dr Cochi added: "The good news is now those children are accessible in refugee camps or other parts of the country so they are getting vaccinated. "But the bad news is the poliovirus has spread all over the country and there have been cases from Karachi and Punjab province." It means there is a serious risk of polio spreading to other countries. The virus travelled from Pakistan to Syria in 2013.

Vaccination campaigns have been hugely successful

Prof Walt Orenstein, from the vaccine centre at Emory University in the US, told the BBC: "Type 3 appears to be gone - I think it is overwhelmingly likely that we are there, but it's too soon to say we're definitely there. "So it's not a total victory, but it is very promising." But he warned: "Pakistan is a major concern, about 85% of wild type 1 poliovirus this year has been in Pakistan, but in Nigeria there is real hope we can get rid of type 1 even by the end of this year."

BBC News - Polio eradication programme reaches major milestone

See also:

Unexplained, polio-like illness has paralyzed 75 kids
November 14, 2014 ~ An unexplained, polio-like illness has now affected 75 children across the country, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

An unexplained, polio-like illness has affected 75 children across the country, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The first cases were reported in August in Colorado, around the same time that children began going to the emergency room with breathing problems related to enterovirus D68, according to the CDC. The CDC reports 1,116 cases of the enterovirus in 47 states and Washington, D.C., in recent months, almost all in children. Twelve children with the virus have died.

The paralysis resembles polio in that the children have severe muscle weakness. All had a fever and respiratory symptoms about a week before developing the paralysis. Most of the children had problems with the spinal cord that could be seen on a magnetic resonance image, or MRI, according to the CDC.

Some of the children also had enterovirus D68 in their nasal mucus. That virus typically causes respiratory problems, so doctors don't know if it's to blame for the paralysis, according to the CDC. Enteroviruses are a large family of viruses that can cause "summer colds," or respiratory bugs in late summer or early fall. To reduce the risk of contracting enterovirus D68 – as well as the flu or other infectious diseases – the CDC recommends that people wash their hands frequently.

Unexplained polio-like illness has paralyzed 75 kids

 

[Delta4Embassy]

Maybe it's that thing President Roosevelt had. Everyone assumed it was polio but they just figured out it wasn't.

 

[waltky]

Anti-polio efforts paying off in Nigeria despite Boko Haram interference...

Nigeria Reaches Milestone: No Polio Cases for a Year
September 25, 2015 - The World Health Organization announced Friday that Nigeria has been removed from the list of polio endemic countries, a key step in the eradication of the disease.

The organization said Nigeria had gone more than a year without a recorded case of naturally occurring poliovirus. Once Nigeria has gone three years without reporting a case of the virus, the country can be declared polio-free. The Global Polio Eradication Initiative, the public-private partnership that is leading the effort to eradicate polio, called the development a "historic achievement."

There are now only two countries, Pakistan and Afghanistan, in which active cases of the disease are found. In those nations, the transmission of the paralyzing virus has never been interrupted. The president of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Chris Elias, hailed the achievement in Nigeria as a milestone but said the accomplishment "is also fragile." Experts warn that continued success in the battle against polio depends on the continuation of vaccination campaigns and the close monitoring of suspected cases.

A health official administers a polio vaccine to a child in Kawo Kano, Nigeria

Past difficulties

"This is a clear example of success under very difficult circumstances," said Tom Frieden, director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. "It shows we can eradicate polio if proven strategies are fully implemented." Nigeria has a long history of challenges surrounding its polio vaccination campaigns. In 2003, several northern states boycotted the polio vaccine over fears it could cause sterilization, leading to a resurgence of the virus in Nigeria and its spread to neighboring countries that had been declared polio-free. In addition, nine vaccinators were killed in the northern state of Kano in 2013, and vaccinators have had difficulty reaching children in the northeastern state of Borno, which is at the heart of the Islamic insurgency by Boko Haram militants.

Despite the challenges, many government and community leaders in Nigeria have increased their support for the vaccination campaign, leading more families to seek out the vaccine for their children. Polio, or poliomyelitis, is a highly infectious disease transmitted person to person, often through fecal matter and contaminated water. It mainly affects children, causing permanent paralysis and even death. Polio is easily prevented through vaccination, but there is no cure.

Nigeria Reaches Milestone: No Polio Cases for a Year

 

[waltky]

Resistance to Polio Vaccination in Cameroon...

Cameroon Finds Resistance to Polio Vaccination Campaign
September 27, 2015 | Cameroon is ending a polio vaccination campaign against a backdrop of growing resistance, even though officials say 7 percent of Cameroon's children are still at risk of contracting the crippling disease.

Forty-three-year-old Clarisse Tomta has refused to allow vaccination agents to inoculate two of her children – both under 5 years of age. She described the anti-polio campaign as unnecessary.

Tomta said it was becoming suspicious when Cameroon organized so many vaccination campaigns against polio knowing fully well that many mothers were educated enough and master their vaccination calendars. She said many more Cameroonians died of poverty and should be given more consideration.

Dr. Noulna Desire of Cameroon's expanded vaccination program said despite the resistance, which he said was a result of misinformation, fear and suspicion, they would not stop until they vaccinated the 5 million children age 5 and younger they were targeting.

WHO recommendation

 

[strollingbones]

i am always amazed at how close the world comes to eradication of polio then these ani vacciners come along...

 

[Valerie]

" just a plane ride away... "


We are always saying that Polio is Just a Plane Ride Away…..well it is and with low vaccination rates in some countries we are too complacent.

We are always saying that Polio is Just a Plane Ride Away…..well it is and wit…

Diseases Are Often Just a Plane Ride Away

 

[koshergrl]

i am always amazed at how close the world comes to eradication of polio then these ani vacciners come along...

Actually, in a place where it's eradicated, vaccines are no longer necessary. But when you open the borders, your virus free populations can get wiped out. Just ask the coastal Indians. Oh wait, you can't, they're all dead from disease they were never exposed to (and therefore didn't need vaccines for). Our tiny pockets of ppl in the us are not responsible for virulent polio outbreaks in the Congo, nor are they responsible for "polio-like" disease in the us. If you must scapegoat, at least target the correct people.

 

[strollingbones]

i know this global travel is just a bitch for ya kg....my point was more extremes like isis....have cause outbreaks....but you continue to warp it for your latest right wing bullshit...

 

[strollingbones]

but i do think anti vacciners are idiots..here in the us

 

[koshergrl]

but i do think anti vacciners are idiots..here in the us

You do know that vaccines aren't 100% effective...and the polio vaccine administered here won't be effective on foreign, mutated strains...right? Let's keep waving unvaccinated hostiles over the border, and blaming 15 Mennonites in PA for the surge in diseases. Brilliant. And effective, I'm sure.

 

[strollingbones]

why you trashing the poor mennonites.....they are not immigrants

 

[koshergrl]

why you trashing the poor mennonites.....they are not immigrants

I'm not. You are. They don't do vaccines. When weird shit hits us from the Phillipines and Mexico, hardcore lefties blame them.

And don't misstate my stance...I have never had an issue with immigration, taking in refugees or "global travel". EVER.

 

[waltky]

New strategy to eradicate polio...

Shift in vaccine use needed to eradicate polio: WHO experts
A World Health Organization expert panel called Friday for a shift in the kinds of vaccines used to fight polio, insisting full eradication of the crippling disease is within reach.

The WHO Strategic Advisory Group of Experts (SAGE), which advises the UN health agency on immunisation policies, warned that among the biggest obstacles to eradicating polio were the sporadic outbreaks of the disease caused by live polio virus used in some vaccines. "We think it's realistic that we will get polio eradicated in the next few years," SAGE chair Jon Abramson told reporters in Geneva. After facing hundreds of thousands of cases of polio as late as the 1980s, there have so far this year been just 51 people infected with the wild form of the crippling disease that affects mainly young children.

A Pakistani health worker administers polio drops to a child during a polio vaccination campaign in Peshawar​

With no cases of wild polio registered in Africa since August 2014, the wild version of the virus now exists only in Afghanistan and Pakistan. "The problem now is that we are seeing more cases of vaccine-caused polio than we are of wild type," Abramson said. Vaccine-derived polio infections are in rare cases caused by one type of polio vaccine, which contains small amounts of weakened but live polio virus. Oral polio vaccine (OPV) replicates in the gut and can be passed to others through faecal-contaminated water, thus imperilling unvaccinated children.

Pakistani State minister of National Health Services Regulation and Coordination Saira Afzal Tarar (L) watches as a doctor administers the Inactivated Polio Vaccine to a child during an event to launch the IPV in Islamabad

Abramson said it was "a rare event to see vaccine-related paralysis," but pointed out that "when you're giving millions and millions and millions and millions of doses, you do see it." WHO has already recommended that OPV be phased out worldwide and replaced by the inactivated polio vaccine (IPV), but due to shortages of supply the shift is taking time.

- Can stop 90% of outbreaks -​

​

 

[Moonglow]

i am always amazed at how close the world comes to eradication of polio then these ani vacciners come along...

Actually, in a place where it's eradicated, vaccines are no longer necessary. But when you open the borders, your virus free populations can get wiped out. Just ask the coastal Indians. Oh wait, you can't, they're all dead from disease they were never exposed to (and therefore didn't need vaccines for). Our tiny pockets of ppl in the us are not responsible for virulent polio outbreaks in the Congo, nor are they responsible for "polio-like" disease in the us. If you must scapegoat, at least target the correct people.

Which coast?

 

[waltky]

Polio vaccination drive in Indonesia...

23.7 Million Indonesian Children to Get Polio Immunization
March 08, 2016 - Vaccine push aims to keep world on track toward being polio-free by 2020; awareness events kicked off Tuesday throughout country

After being declared polio-free by World Health Organization officials in 2014, Indonesia is observing National Polio Immunization Week by vowing to inoculate millions of children.

At a news conference in Jakarta, Indonesian Health Minister Nila Moeloek announced plans to vaccinate 23.7 million babies — from birth to 59 months of age — to keep the world on track toward being polio-free by 2020. "In 2014, Indonesia, along with other ASEAN countries, was awarded polio-free certificates," he said, vowing that the vaccine would comprise only Indonesia-made ingredients. "But because Afghanistan and Pakistan are still categorized as polio-endemic countries, there is a need for worldwide commitment, including from Indonesia, to move toward a polio-free world."

An Indonesian boy is given polio vaccine in Jakarta, Indonesia​

While the polio immunization awareness events kicked off Tuesday throughout Indonesia, Puan Maharani, Coordinating Minister of Cultural and Human Development, said two provinces will receive vaccines a week later than the rest. "Two provinces are postponing the National Polio Immunization Week, including Bali, because it coincides with Nyepi, a religious holiday," she said. "The provinces will launch their own [events] from March 13 to 22."

The launch of National Polio Immunization Week events in Solo, Central Java, was attended by First Lady Iriana Jokowi. According to The Jakarta Post, Indonesia's Ulema Council issued an edict Jan. 23 reiterating its position that immunization is allowed in Islam to improve immunity and prevent sickness, so long as ingredients for the vaccine are derived of halal sources. Indonesia is home to the world's largest Muslim population.

23.7 Million Indonesian Children to Get Polio Immunization

 

[waltky]

Nearly 5M Children in War-torn Yemen Vaccinated for Polio...

Nearly 5M Children in War-torn Yemen Get Polio Vaccine
April 10, 2017 — Nearly five million children under age five have been successfully vaccinated against polio in war-torn Yemen almost two-months after a nationwide immunization campaign was launched by the World Health Organization (WHO), the U.N. Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the World Bank.

The campaign, which began on February 20, has taken much longer than usual to complete because of security challenges. The logistics involved in reaching millions of children with life-saving vaccines in war-torn Yemen are immense and complicated. WHO spokesman, Tarik Jasarevic, told VOA different parts of the country are controlled by different warring parties. He said informing them of the campaign, organizing health teams and transporting the polio vaccines takes a lot of time. “For this campaign, more than 5,000 vehicles have been rented, more than 40,000 health workers were mobilized.... This is a big operation, obviously. But, with the support of local religious leaders, political leaders, that element is absolutely crucial that it is being accepted by the population and that vaccination teams are being trained and prepared in advance,” he said.

A Yemeni health worker administers a dose of polio vaccine to a boy during a house-to-house immunization campaign in Sana'a, Yemen​

Jasarevic said health workers only recently were able to bring the campaign to Yemen’s Sa’ada governorate. Despite intensifying violence, he said more than 150,000 children under age five were vaccinated against polio and nearly 370,000 children between the ages of six months and 15 years were immunized against measles there. He said the war has made routine immunizations in Yemen impossible, making nationwide immunization campaigns against polio and other killer diseases necessary. “We have seen for example in Syria that polio came back because there were areas where children were not immunized for some time. We do not want this to happen in Yemen. Yemen is still polio-free and we want to keep it polio-free and these campaigns are one of the ways to make sure that the virus cannot find a host,” Jasarevic said.

The United Nations reports Yemen’s two-year-long conflict has all but destroyed the country’s health system. It says the situation of Yemen’s children continues to worsen and many are dying from preventable diseases.

Nearly 5M Children in War-torn Yemen Get Polio Vaccine

 

[waltky]

This is an area that sorely needs protection from polio...

Militants in Lake Chad Region Block Polio Program
December 20, 2017 — Scientists warn a campaign to eradicate polio in central Africa is falling short because of upheaval in the Lake Chad Basin area, where the Boko Haram militant group remains active. On the positive side, on country – Gabon - has been declared polio-free.

Professor Rose Leke, who heads the Africa Regional Certification Commission for polio eradication, says Central Africa has seen no cases of polio in the past 15 months. But, she adds, scientists cannot be sure the polio virus has been eradicated in the region. Leke says medical teams find it difficult getting access to conflict zones in Mali, the Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and parts of Cameroon, Chad, Niger and Nigeria affected by the Boko Haram insurgency. "DRC has circulating polio viruses, so many of them. We are worried about the country and so we have specific recommendations also for DRC and for all the others. We are still very concerned about the Lake Chad basin area, the Borno [state in Nigeria] area where we do not know what is happening there. I think that is a concern for the entire world," she said.

A child is given a dose of polio vaccine at an immunisation health center, in Maiduguri, Borno state, Nigeria​

Leke says polio cases have decreased by more than 99 percent in the past 30 years, from an estimated 350,000 per year to just 37 reported cases in 2016. She says as a result of the global effort to eradicate the disease, more than 16 million people have been saved from paralysis. According to the United Nations, once a case of polio is recorded, it takes three years of no other case to declare the zone polio-free. Gabon recently reached that goal. Gabon's neighbor Cameroon has attained the status of “non-polio exporting country," but is still considered a high-risk nation like other African states with an influx of refugees from conflict zones that health care workers mostly avoid.

But Alim Hayatou, Cameroon's secretary of state in the ministry of health, says the country is also on track to be polio-free. He says they have prepared an ambitious plan to make sure Cameroon eliminates polio by 2019. Central African states have organized numerous inoculation campaigns, but more than 15 percent of children in the region remain unvaccinated due to cultural resistance, conflicts and illiteracy.

Militants in Lake Chad Region Block Polio Program

 

[waltky]

Taliban muckin' up polio vaccinations for Afghani children...

Unrest Deprives Thousands of Children of Polio Vaccine in Afghanistan
February 04, 2018 | WASHINGTON — Widespread unrest in Afghanistan has kept thousands of children from receiving polio vaccines, Afghan officials claim.

"During each polio vaccination drive, we target about 6 million children," Mir Jan Rasekh, head of the Afghanistan Polio Eradication Public Awareness Program, told VOA. "But due to unrest, fighting, and opposition of armed groups to the vaccine, an estimated 300,000 children (will be) missing the polio vaccines." Rasekh added, "IS fighters do not permit children to receive the anti-polio vaccine in areas under their control." Afghan officials charge that contentious fighting, unrest and opposition to the Taliban, Islamic State and other armed groups are the main obstacles in hard-to-reach areas in southern, southeastern and eastern Afghanistan. According to the Afghan ministry of public health, only three positive cases of the polio virus were recorded in January — two in southern Kandahar, and one in eastern Nangarhar.

Last year, multiple cases were recorded across the country — seven in southern Kandahar, two in southern Helmand, three in eastern Nangarhar, one in southern Zabul and one in the northern Kunduz province. Afghanistan and Pakistan share a border of more than 2,000 kilometers. Thousands of people who cross the border can easily transmit the virus in both countries. Health officials in the eastern Nangarhar province claim that up to 8,000 children have not received the vaccine. "The number of these children in five restive districts of Nangarhar province was 17,000. But now it has reached 8,000. We are working to bring this number down." Najibullah Kamawal, chief of public health in eastern Nangarhar, told VOA.

An Afghan health worker vaccinates a child as part of a campaign to eliminate polio, on the outskirts of Kabul, Afghanistan​

Officials in the northern restive districts of Afghanistan also said that an estimated 30,000 children missed the recent anti-polio campaign. "We call on armed oppositions not to stop anti-polio drives in areas under their control," Lutfullah Azizi, Jawzjan province governor, told the media last month. Afghan health officials said religious clerics, local elders and other leaders have been influential in convincing the armed groups opposing the vaccination — particularly the Taliban — to let the children receive the vaccine. They admit, however, that anti-polio campaigners are facing occasional problems. "These problems are not permanent. Sometimes, some of the local commanders of armed oppositions create problems for the campaigners, but we solve those problems through influential people, local imams (prayer leaders of local mosques) and elders," Hedayatullah Stanikzai, an adviser to the Afghan health minister, told VOA.

The new cases of polio have caused concern among the international stakeholders who are part of the campaign to eradicate polio from Afghanistan. The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) in Afghanistan worried that the number of cases recorded in January means more children are at risk. The existence of the virus and the children's weak immunity paves the way for the virus to spread more than ever before. We cannot stress enough that polio vaccines must reach every child," said Sayed Kamal Shah, spokesperson for the UNICEF polio program. Poliomyelitis, or polio, is a highly infectious viral disease that mainly affects children under five years of age. The virus is transmitted from person to person and can invade the nervous system and cause paralysis or death. Afghanistan, Pakistan and Nigeria are the three countries in the world where the polio virus remains endemic.

Unrest Deprives Thousands of Children of Polio Vaccine in Afghanistan