Polio outbreak in Nepal - ALL cases are in vaccinated kids

[Ares]

KATHMANDU, Aug 8: Over 10 years after its last indigenous case was traced in Nepal, polio has reached a dangerous stage of local transmission. Doctors warn that the local transmission of polio, if not tackled effectively at the earliest, may result in a deadly epidemic.

Of the total five recent cases of polio detected in Rautahat and Mahottari districts, three have been transmitted locally. Even more shockingly, in all five cases, polio victims had been administered at least a dose of vaccines.

“The acute infectious viral disease has started to spread locally within Nepal. On the other hand, vaccines used to eradicate polio have proved evidently ineffective,” said a doctor on condition of anonymity.

The Department of Health Services (DoHS) has admitted that polio, the eradication of which has been postponed four times in the past, has now started spreading more dangerously.

“It is true that polio has taken a dreadful turn,” Krishna Bahadur Chanda, Immunization Program Chief at DoHS, told myrepublica.com. “We are restlessly trying to contain it.”

According to Chanda, only two victims -- two-year-old Gupharana Khatun of Rautahat and six-year-old Rameshwar Mandal -- have been diagnosed with polio viruses. Polio viruses detected in other four victims --two-year-old Priyanka, eight-month-old Sanjida Khatun and eight-month-old Mohammad Sajid of Rautahat -- have originated in Nepal, not imported from India.

The Bangkok-based National Institute of Health (NIH) laboratory has confirmed both original and imported cases of polio disease.

Before this, all cases of polio were imported into Nepal from adjacent Indian states of Bihar and Uttar Pradesh. Of all the three types of polio, the last original P-3 case had been traced in 2000. Similarly, the last original case of P-1 was detected in 1999. The P-2 type of polio has been eradicated from Nepal.

Ineffective vaccines

The fact that all five victims have already had at least one dose of vaccines -- monovalent used against P-1 polio -- has indicated that the government´s immunization drive has failed to yield results.

According to a doctor involved in the government´s immunization program, either monovalent vaccines are faulty or are being used in a wrong way. “The latter is more plausible,” he said.

Doctors say giving vaccines to children to protect them from polio is not enough. A routine -- first dose in six months, second in ten months and third in fourteen months --should strictly be followed to maintain the efficacy of vaccines.

Similarly, children should be protected from malnourishment and worms during the whole period in which vaccines are given to them.

“A comprehensive program, not only vaccination drive, is necessary to eradicate polio,” a doctor said. However, the government has failed to introduce such a comprehensive program that includes nutrition and sanitation apart from vaccination. Investment only in vaccination, according to health experts, is unlikely to help eradicate polio from Nepal.

Acknowledging the risk of rapid local transmission of polio, DoHS has decided to expand its vaccination program to 18 districts.

In the first and second rounds of its drive, DoHS distributed vaccines only in eight districts--Saptari, Siraha, Sarlahi, Dhanusha, Mahottari, Rautahat, Bara and Parsa. In its third round of vaccination drive on August 14-15, DoHS will distribute vaccines in 10 more districts -- Kathmandu, Bhaktapur, Lalitpur, Chitwan, Makawanpur, Udayapur, Sindhuli, Morang and Sunsari.

http://www.myrepublica.com/portal/index.php?action=news_details&news_id=21996

[Serpo]

And of course the only sensible thing to do is to vaccinate more :conf:

[Ponce]

I stopped getting any kind of shots long ago and will never, on purpose, get another one.

By the way, talking to Agnut today we both learned that as of late we are feeling weaker and having to sit down more often to take a break..........how about you?

[joe_momma]

Odd the polio would be clustered. The polio vaccine has been demonstrably effective for the last 60 years.

Given the open and transparent process of (UN and) government programs, I'd first look to see if the director of the Nepalese program is suddenly in possession of a new yak or larger dirt floored hut.

A sudden clustering in a remote, poor country leads me to suspect someone swapped out the vaccine for saline or just regular sugar cubes to pocket a few extra coins.

just sayin'

[Glass]

The polio vaccine was introduced during the decline of the incidents of polio. This decline it thought to have come about because of improvements in hygene.

The polio vaccine also contains the SV40 virus which is linked to more than a dozen cancers now affecting those countries that underwent mass vaccinations for more than 40 years. The use of polio as a vaccine is highly dubious. Most likely it was used as a vector in the cancer pandemic which now grips the first world.