Polio
2009

Polio Surge in Nigeria after Vaccine Virus Mutates
New York Times
August 14, 2009
"Polio, a dreaded paralyzing disease stamped out in the industrialized world, is spreading in Nigeria despite efforts to stamp it out. And health officials say in some cases, it's caused by the vaccine used to fight it..."

ACIP Amends Poliovirus Vaccine Recommendations
Pediatric SuperSite
May 26, 2009
“Members of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices affirmed a recommendation for a fourth dose of inactivated poliovirus-containing vaccine for 4-to-6-year olds if the three-dose vaccine series is completed before the child is 4…"

Obituary: Woman Who Spent Years In Iron Lung Remembered
NPR
May 11, 2009
"All Things Considered: Martha Mason, who lived more than 60 years in an iron lung, died last week at the age of 71 at her home in Lattimore, N.C. Mary Dalton, who directed a documentary about Mason, Martha In Lattimore, offers her insight..."
Polio: New Outbreak of Polio in Africa Prompts Appeal for Vaccine Financing
New York Times
April 21, 2009
"The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies has made an emergency appeal for millions of dollars to fight a new polio outbreak across Africa. 'Polio is spreading again, including in countries such as Uganda which had been polio-free for more than a decade,' said Dr. Tamman Aloudat, who is in charge of health emergencies for the federation. Despite more than 20 years of eradication efforts, two strains of polio have spread out from northern Nigeria and northern India — both places where many Muslims have resisted vaccines because of rumors that vaccine efforts are a Western plot to sterilize them..."
State Health Official Calls Polio Case Extremely Rare
Minneapolis Star Tribune
April 14, 2009
"For the second time in four years, health officials have discovered a rare case of polio infection in a Minnesota patient with a severely weakened immune system. The patient, who died in March, was infected with a live virus found in the oral polio vaccine, said Dr. Aaron DeVries of the Minnesota Department of Health. DeVries called it extremely rare and said there is no danger to the public. He said it's not certain whether polio played a role in the death, because the patient had multiple health problems. The oral vaccine, which contains a live virus, has not been used in this country since 2000. Polio was virtually wiped out in the United States 30 years ago. But since 1961, the oral vaccine has been linked to nearly four dozen cases of polio, worldwide, in people with immune deficiencies. In 2005, Minnesota health officials discovered that five unvaccinated Amish children from central Minnesota were infected with the polio virus, including a baby with a weakened immune system. Investigators said that the baby, who was especially vulnerable, probably contracted the virus from someone who had been vaccinated with the live virus. None of the children actually developed polio, and DeVries said there is no connection between the Amish cases and the patient who died last month. These are the only cases of vaccine-related polio infection reported in the United States since 2000, the Health Department said."
Polio Outbreak in 15 African Countries Setback for Global Eradication
Voice of America News
April 7, 2009
"The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies warns a polio outbreak in 15 African countries threatens the global eradication campaign and puts many children at risk of getting this crippling disease. The Red Cross is appealing for more than $2 million to support polio immunization efforts in all African outbreak countries, except for Chad, which has not asked for assistance. There were 350,000 cases of polio around the world when the World Health Organization began its global eradication campaign in 1988. Now, there are 1,851 cases including 192 new cases this year. But, International Red Cross Federation Senior Officer for Health in Emergencies, Tammam Aloudat, tells VOA it is not these numbers that are scary for health professionals. "It is not the ultimate number so far that tells us a lot about the outbreak position. It is the countries that had zero cases before and are having re-infection again," said Dr. Aloudat..."
Outbreaks in Nigeria Set Back Polio Fight
Boston Globe
April 2, 2009
"Polio has spread out of Nigeria to reinfect neighboring countries that had eliminated the disease, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported yesterday. The new Nigerian outbreaks set back a bid to wipe out the water-borne disease globally, the CDC said in its weekly report on death and disease. Polio attacks the nervous system and can cause paralysis, breathing problems, and sometimes death..."
Some Muslim Clergy Join Nigeria's War on Polio
Associated Press
March 22, 2009
"In 2003, imams in northern Nigeria fomented a boycott of polio vaccinations claiming they were a Western plot to make Muslims infertile or infect them with AIDS. The result: The number of newly crippled children rose by more than double the following year, and there were fears that the disease would spread into a dozen neighboring countries. Now, after another tripling of cases in 2008, a big new anti-polio push is under way in Africa's most populous country, and this time, some Muslim clerics have made themselves part of the solution, joining community leaders, health workers and the victims themselves in waging the war..."
Surviving the Polio Epidemic
Kalamazoo Gazette
March 19, 2009
"When America's summers were filled with fear and mine brought multiple surgeries One of the great achievements of the 20th century was the development of the polio vaccine. Yet, even now, polio has not been completely eradicated worldwide. The Gazette's recent stories about Rotary's efforts to wipe out polio inspired me to share my own experience with the disease. Among people of my generation -- the first wave of baby boomers -- there is not one of us who does not remember someone who suffered the effects of that then-dreaded disease. We can all recall a neighbor kid, a cousin, even a President, who contracted it. Our parents spent the summers of the late 1940s and early '50s keeping us home from swimming pools, trying to get us to take naps and keeping us away from crowds. In my case, none of that worked. I was 10 months old in September 1947, living with my parents in Wyandotte, when I awoke from my nap feverish and stiff..."
Polio Infects Child in Kenya, First Case Since 2006
Reuters
February 25, 2009
"Polio has infected a four-year-old girl in northern Kenya in the country's first case of the disease since 2006, the government said on Wednesday. The girl is believed to have contracted the virus from neighbouring southern Sudan, which has struggled to improve its health sector since a 2005 peace deal ended a two-decade civil war. Shahnaaz Sharif, Kenya's director of public health and sanitation, said a vaccination campaign would begin in the area on March 7 and would aim to immunise more than 95,000 children. Youngsters under three are most at risk from the disease, which can cause irreversible paralysis..."
Television Review: A fearful disease and how it was stopped
Los Angeles Times
February 2, 2009
"One of my earliest memories is of standing in line, in some sort of meeting hall, waiting to be given a sugar cube soaked in polio vaccine. Polio was all but eradicated in America by the time I actually knew what it was, but its cultural effects still resonated: I remember Gumby, the little clay boy, being put in an iron lung (used to help polio victims breathe) in one episode; it was one of the most disturbing images of my childhood. And there was the March of Dimes, into which we were enlisted as student-citizens, and whose origins are told in "The Polio Crusade," airing tonight as part of the PBS series "American Experience." It's a neat, gripping social history of a disease that ranked behind only the atom bomb among midcentury American fears. Although it was not the most dreadful disease of its day -- paralysis was rare, and death very rare -- it played upon the public imagination as a despoiler of youth (and of the summertime, when it was most prevalent). Images here of very small children walking with leg braces and canes are still heartbreakingly potent..."
635 Million Pledged in Effort to Wipe Out Polio
Wall Street Journal
January 22, 2009
"Efforts to eradicate polio in Nigeria, Afghanistan, India, and Pakistan have been given a boost by $635 million in new funding. The German and U.K. governments will contribute $280 million, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation will donate $255 million, and Rotary International will generate $100 million during the next three years. The World Health Organization and UNICEF will use the funds for vaccination drives in the affected countries. Though vaccination efforts lowered polio cases from 350,000 in 1988 to a several hundred in recent years, conflicts in Pakistan and Afghanistan, insufficient vaccination in northern India, and Nigeria's decision to temporarily halt vaccinations in 2003 helped boost the number of cases to about 1,600 last year. Health officials say $350 million in funding must be raised this year and next to continue eradication initiatives in these countries..."
2008
Biologists Spy Close-Up View of Poliovirus Linked to Host Cell Receptor
Science Daily
December 8, 2008
"Researchers from Purdue and Stony Brook universities have determined the precise atomic-scale structure of the poliovirus attached to key receptor molecules in human host cells and also have taken a vital snapshot of processes leading to infection. The virus binds to a receptor on the cell to form a single complex..."
Study: Old Polio Vaccine Four Times More Effective than Newer Drug
Voice of America
October 15, 2008
"According to a study published this week in the New England Journal of Medicine, researchers report that a polio vaccine developed years ago is much more effective at protecting children against the paralytic disease than a newer formulation. Researchers say nowhere is this more evident than Nigeria, which harbors the lion's share of global polio cases. VOA's Jessica Berman reports..."
Nigeria Puts Polio Eradication at Risk
Voice of America
May 26, 2008
"Health Experts are concerned that a big outbreak of polio in Nigeria this year could put the World Health Organization's efforts to wipe out this crippling disease at risk. WHO has made enormous progress since it launched its global eradication campaign in 1988. At that time, 350,000 children a year became paralyzed because of polio. That number now stands at 450. Most of the world now is polio-free. But, that achievement is being threatened by reluctance on the part of some religious, traditional and political leaders in the northern part of Nigeria to immunize all their children against polio. Lisa Schlein reports for VOA from Geneva..."
Polio Cases Double in Nigeria
Seattle Times
April 22, 2008
"Polio cases have nearly doubled this year in the West African nation of Nigeria as officials struggle to fight various natural strains of the virus as well as an outbreak set off by the polio vaccine itself three years ago. Outbreaks linked to the vaccine, as opposed to the naturally occurring virus, are usually stamped out within months. But Nigeria has a very low immunization rate, partly from its weak health system and also from rumors about the safety of the vaccine..."
Our Stories: My Life Shows Why Polio Vaccination Is So Crucial
Asheville Citizen-Times (NC)
April 17, 2008
"I was 2 1/2 years old in 1950 when I became sick. The nation was gripped by the polio epidemic. My earliest memories began in a hospital..."
Torn by Fighting, Two Countries Fall Behind in Campaign Against Polio
New York Times
April 1, 2008
"Fighting in Afghanistan and Pakistan meant that polio eradication did not go well in those countries in 2007, a World Health Organization report said last week. They are two of the last four nations that have not eliminated the disease (others are India and Nigeria)..."
In Belgium, Refusing Polio Vaccine for Children Can Mean Parents Serve Jail Time
Boston Herald
March 12, 2008
"As doctors struggle to eradicate polio worldwide, one of their biggest problems is persuading parents to vaccinate their children. In Belgium, authorities are resorting to an extreme measure: prison sentences. Two sets of parents in Belgium were recently handed five-month prison terms for failing to vaccinate their children against polio. Each parent was also fined $8,000..."
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