Monday, August 20, 2012

Polio Nearing Eradication

Last week Angola announced there were no new cases of polio since July 2011.
LAUNDA, 10 August, 2012 – Today, Angola marks a year without a new wild poliovirus case, moving the world a step closer to the final global goal of eradicating this contagious crippling disease forever.
After a concerted effort to stop polio transmission the number of polio cases dropped from 33 in 2010 to five in 2011 and no cases registered in 2012. Laboratory results have confirmed that the last case of wild poliovirus was a 14-month-old child from Uige Province in the country's Northwest in July 2011.
This marks a victory for the polio eradication initiative as Angola experienced a resurgence of polio in the last 6 years.
Angola, which eliminated polio from 2001 to 2004, has been plagued by the re-emergence of this crippling disease since May 2005. The disease has since spread from Angola to Namibia (2006), the Democratic Republic of Congo (2006, 2008 and 2010), and the Republic of Congo (2010).
Religious opposition and the U.S. CIA's use of a sham vaccine campaign have caused setbacks in some African and Middle East countries.  However UNICEF is working closely with religious leaders, particularly in Pakistan which has recorded one of the highest number of polio cases in the world.

Several other countries have no polio cases on record thus far for 2012 making only four countries recording polio cases for this year, Afganistan, Nigeria, Pakistan and Chad.  This is good news for global vaccine efforts and the eradication of polio in sight.

31 comments:

  1. What a great success - I am very excited about this progress - history in the making :)

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  2. Come on, you know this is only because Angola is so much more sanitary this year than last year, not due to vaccination (spoken in a sarcastic voice).

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  3. Moderation, I put putin in the spam folder but if you want a play thing, I'll be happy to unleash him/her.

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  4. Not even in jest, Science Mom :-)

    putin and Thingy have already taken over another science blog with their thread-derailing ignorant posts.

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  5. I thought India still had polio issues, or have they had major success as well?

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  6. @ Middle Roader:

    Here's the website for the International Polio Eradication Initiative...a great website for you to "bookmark" to track how close we are to eradicating this scourge from the face of the earth:

    http://www.polioeradication.org/Infectedcountries/India.aspx

    No cases of polio have been reported in India since January 2011...truly a remarkable accomplishment.

    http://www.polioeradication.org/Portals/0/Document/InfectedCountries/India/Polio_In_India_Factsheet.pdf

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  7. Confirmed: India’s Polio Eradication Campaign in 2011 Caused 47,500 Cases of Vaccine-Induced Polio Paralysis

    BY DR MERCOLA.....http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2012/08/28/polio-eradication-campaign.aspx?e_cid=20120828_DNL_artNew_1

    If you listen to mainstream media news, you'll be told that polio has now been eradicated in India – an accomplishment the Polio Global Eradication Initiative (PGEI), founded in 1988 by the World Health Organization (WHO), Rotary International, UNICEF, and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), are attributing to the intense polio vaccination campaign.

    The Indian government reportedly had 2.3 million vaccine administrators visit over 200 million households, with oral polio vaccinations given to nearly 170 million children 5 years of age and younger;1 health officials are now doubling their efforts to conquer polio in Pakistan as well.

    What you're NOT learning from the mainstream media, however, is that there's a growing public movement fighting the profound misinformation about the vaccine, mainly because VACCINE-CAUSED polio is maiming and even killing a growing number of children every day, far outstripping the damage done by the wild-type polio that has been supplanted by the manmade form found within the vaccine.

    The Polio Vaccine is Causing a Deadly Polio-Like Disease in Children

    Come on folks.... vaccines are NOT the answer here

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    1. Nope and try using a valid source like WHO. Mercola doesn't know jack about polio epidemiology, nor any epidemiology for that matter. Jerks like you and Mercola are hindering the eradication of a disease that we won't have to vaccinate for. Shoot yourselves in the feet much?

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    2. I don't know either of you and I am still on the fence regarding vaccines - that's what brought me here. But I really deplore how astonishingly rude both sides are to one another. It only polarizes the debate further.

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    3. @Sara - the anti-vax side isn't interested in an honest debate....instead, those of us that support vaccines (anti-disease, as opposed to pro-disease anti-vaxxers) are constantly labeled as Pharma shills, liars & out to give children autism....at the end of the day, .I really don't care about civility anymore - because children are out there dying and being stricken with diseases that, by all rights, they should never be getting in the 21st Century

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  8. Media is Not Giving the Whole Picture on the Oral Polio Vaccine Controversy
    Barbara Loe Fisher, founder of the National Vaccine Information Center (NVIC), spoke with Voice of America (VOA) about the intensive polio vaccine campaigns in the developing world. Unfortunately, much of Barbara's interview and insights were edited out of the video, as she explains below:

    http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2012/08/28/polio-eradication-campaign.aspx?e_cid=20120828_DNL_artNew_1

    open link again to read more if you feel moved to do so.

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  9. Third World Countries Using Dangerous and Dated Vaccines

    According to a 2010 article in the New England Journal of Medicine, outbreaks of vaccine-derived polioviruses (VDPVs) have been occurring at a rate of once or twice per year, since the year 2000.3 And it's estimated that up to 180 Indian children develop vaccine-associated polio paralysis (VAPP) each year.

    The live polio virus from the vaccine can remain in your throat for one to two weeks, and in your feces for up to two months.5 So not only is the vaccine recipient at risk, but he or she can potentially spread the disease as long as the virus remains in feces – which, incidentally, turns on its head the age-old pro-vaccination dogma that the non-vaccinated represent an infection risk to the vaccinated.

    NO, I don's shoot myself in the feet, silly. Are you seriously in favor of spreading disease to the already impoverished parts of the world? You are cruel SM.

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    1. Hey Einstein, I know about polio and vaccine associated paralytic polio. In one post you claim 47K have it, now you post 189 per year. Which is it? OPV has been used all over the world and is what eliminated it from Western countries. That is now why we can use IPV.

      You are the cruel one who wishes to see infectious diseases keep circulating. Oh I see, they're just dirty brown people that aren't healthy to begin with, not like your little precious snowflakes. Go look up worldwide polio stats on the WHO website and get back to me.

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  10. wow! you are really cruel and insensitive.. I actually do care about people from all over the world. You, on the other hand, sound rather racist in your attempt to be sarcastic.

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    1. Then why do you post those things from Mercola? Plus you blew off and ignored stories like this and this?

      If you really cared you would find a way to fund the IPV for these countries instead of posting anonymously how horrible things happen with the OPV.

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  11. wow! you are really cruel and insensitive.. I actually do care about people from all over the world. You, on the other hand, sound rather racist in your attempt to be sarcastic.

    I guess I'm not shocked that my comment went over your head. Let me put it another way; you don't know jack about what life is like in a second or third world country. You project your comfy first world privileges. You have no idea what the devastation is from diseases and how any intervention that will allow a child to reach adulthood is received with gratitude.

    I agree with Chris; put your money where your mouth is and raise money or go volunteer to help people less fortunate than you. And please stop posting your moronic stats; they aren't true and you are just insulting a lot of good people who are actively doing something to help others (me included) rather than just being an ignorant keyboard warrior like yourself.

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  12. When "Anonymous" is informed that Joe Mercola doesn't know jack about epidemiology and polio epidemiology in particular, Anon brings on the *Big Gun* expert Barbara Loe Fisher.

    *Big Gun* Babs knows even less about epidemiology than Joe. (Is that possible?)

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    1. Mercola mostly knows how to fleece marks of their cash just like an old fashioned carnival huckster.

      Barbara Loe Fisher has a background in public relations. Her aim is to just sound important as she yells "Hey, look at me! Look at me! I have some old data that will scare you." All the time ignoring the more recent data that makes her insignificant. I liked how Dr. Offit compared her to John Salamone, a dad of a truly vaccine injured child that did work to make vaccines safer.

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  13. @ Chris: I know about Loe Fisher's son. She claims he was left with "multiple learning disabilities and ADD" after receiving the DPT vaccine in 1980...what a crock.

    She's at her best when she's self-promoting herself. I've seen some of her videos with Joe Mercola and they're like a comedy team.

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    1. I would be more charitable towards her if my son was as capable as hers. But, alas, he is permanently disabled from a now vaccine preventable disease.

      I have no respect for any public relations person who thinks they know more than a person with a real expertise in biology and immunology.

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    2. Um...it's not a "crock." Even vaccine proponents agree that there were multiple problems with the DPT vaccine, which is why the DPT was changed to DTaP. When I went to the ped's to get my kids vaccinated, the pamphlet they give you that goes along with your lot number details many risks possible from vaccination. To deny that risk makes you appear ignorant. Both sides need to *listen* to each other and respectfully address mutual concerns, not call each other rude names.

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    3. And later research shows those risks were overblown:

      Pediatr Infect Dis J. 2006 Sep;25(9):768-73.
      Encephalopathy after whole-cell pertussis or measles vaccination: lack of evidence for a causal association in a retrospective case-control study.

      And no matter what, the vaccines are much safer than the diseases... which seem to come back with vaccination levels fall:

      Impact of anti-vaccine movements on pertussis control: the untold story

      Diphtheria in the former Soviet Union: reemergence of a pandemic disease.

      Please tell me if this reply was rude in any way. I do not want to cause anything but an increase in evidence and information.

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    4. @Sara - pro-vaccine advocates never state that there is "no risk" to vaccination, which is why we fully support parents making informed choices - and to get real information on vaccine safety, and not the overblown hype that the anti-vax brigade constantly pushes.....

      Look at DTP - they complained the vaccine wasn't great, so it was changed to DTaP - which was known to be less effective (and continued research shows it has its weaknesses as well - meaning that the immunity to Pertussis doesn't last as long as thought, though Pertussis is a bacteria & notoriously hard to treat regardless)....so what does the anti-vax brigade do now - complain that Pertussis is coming back because of a "bad vaccine." Seems like they constantly want to have their cake and eat it too....you'd think they would be in favor of returning to DTP, since the safety questions have been answered with new research and the immunity would last longer......

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  14. Vaccines Are Bad For You

    http://organichealthadviser.com/archives/vaccines-are-bad-for-you

    Decades ago autism was virtually unknown in the United States, but a new government study has found that now about 1 in every 91 U.S. children will be diagnosed at some point in their lives with autism.

    This is even more disturbing when you compare the general population with religious groups like the Amish that do not take vaccines. There is absolutely no autism among the Amish, and many health experts believe that it is because they do not get their children vaccinated.

    Not only that, but some of the newest vaccines actually contain live viruses.

    One of the newest cervical cancer vaccines that contains a live virus has been reportedly crippling and even killing a significant number of young girls who take it. For example, an 18 year old girl named Stacey Jones from the U.K. was left brain-damaged after suffering epileptic seizures just days after being given a cervical cancer vaccine.

    But she is hardly alone.

    Just Google "cervical cancer vaccine dangers" or "cervical cancer vaccine deaths" and do some research into this.
    And yet the public health authorities in the U.S. and the U.K. keep insisting that it is safe. Yikes.
    It would actually take an entire book to properly describe the health dangers of modern vaccines, but to illustrate the point we thought it would be a great idea to include the following list of ingredients found in a typical seasonal flu vaccine that Stephen Lendman put together. Are you sure that you want to inject this stuff into your body?

    http://www.thepeoplesvoice.org/TPV3/Voices.php/2009/10/05/ineffectiveness-and-dangers-of-flu-shots

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    1. This is even more disturbing when you compare the general population with religious groups like the Amish that do not take vaccines. There is absolutely no autism among the Amish, and many health experts believe that it is because they do not get their children vaccinated.

      Oh good grief, neither of these claims is true. The Amish vaccinate and the Amish have autism and also have nothing to do with each other. But feel free to quote original literature. I find your anti-vaxx sources to be hilariously inept and dishonest.

      Not only that, but some of the newest vaccines actually contain live viruses.

      ZOMG!!!! You mean like Vaccinia, MMR and OPV which have been around for decades?

      One of the newest cervical cancer vaccines that contains a live virus has been reportedly crippling and even killing a significant number of young girls who take it.

      No they don't, they only contain fragments no live virus.

      For example, an 18 year old girl named Stacey Jones from the U.K. was left brain-damaged after suffering epileptic seizures just days after being given a cervical cancer vaccine.

      Funny how you'll believe anything you hear when it suits you but reject facts. I thought ignorance was bliss; I guess not.

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  15. THE TOXINS: (once again)

    -- 25 micrograms of mercury (thimerosal), a known neurotoxin; one microgram is considered toxic; according to the NIH, "mercury and all of its compounds are toxic, exposure to excessive levels can permanently damage or fatally injure the brain and kidneys;" even "exposures to very small amounts" can also cause "allergic reactions, neurological damage and death;" it's also linked to autism;

    -- aluminum hydroxide and phosphate, known to be linked to some neurodegenerative diseases, including Alzheimer's disease; the Office of Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) reports x-ray evidence of pulmonary fibrosis among workers studied; it also reports that patients undergoing long-term kidney dialysis develop speech disorders, dementia, or convulsions;

    -- formaldehyde, a known carcinogen according to the National Cancer Institute; it's also linked to upper respiratory tract problems and effects on lymphatic and hematopoietic systems (relating to human blood cells);

    -- gelatin, polysorbate 80 and resin - ingredients causing severe allergic reactions;

    -- ammonium sulfate, a suspected gastrointestinal, liver, and respiratory toxicant and neurotoxicant;

    -- sorbitol, a suspected gastrointestinal and liver toxicant;

    -- phenoxyethanol (antifreeze), a suspected developmental and reproductive toxicant;

    -- beta-propiolactone, a known carcinogen and suspected gastrointestinal, liver, respiratory, skin and sense organ toxicant;

    -- gentamycin, an antibiotic;

    -- triton X100, a strong detergent;

    -- animal tissues and fluids, including potentially contaminated horse blood, rabbit brain, dog kidney, monkey kidney, chick embryo, chicken egg, duck egg, pig blood, and porcine (pig) protein/tissue;

    -- calf and fetal bovine serum;

    -- macerated cancer cells;

    -- diploid cells from aborted fetal tissue

    *****

    If a neighbor offered you a cocktail containing the above ingredients at a party would you drink it?

    Of course not.

    So why would you let anybody inject it into your body?

    Why would you let anybody inject it into your children?

    The truth is that vaccines are bad for you. They mess with your immune system and provide openings for other diseases to invade your body. In fact, in one recent study researchers found that children who had gotten the seasonal flu vaccine were three times as likely to be hospitalized during the time frame of the study compared to children who had not received the vaccine.

    Now more than ever it is time to think for yourself. Don't just blindly accept what anyone tells you. Do the research for yourself. After all, it is you and your family that will bear the consequences for whatever choices that you ultimately make.

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  16. If a neighbor offered you a cocktail containing the above ingredients at a party would you drink it?

    Yes as long as there was gin, vermouth and a twist of lemon involved.

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  17. @ Anonymous: "Vaccines Are Bad For You"

    The website that you got your copypasta from, is "bad for you". All of the citations sourced in your copy pasta, link to anti-vaccine crank blogs.

    Careful there, Anonymous...you'll rot yer brain... by using such sources.


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  18. I'm sorry for being blunt... but how brain dead do you have to be to re-post a page that was torn apart due to lack of evidence twice? Seriously, thimerosal was never in any polio vaccine! Formaldehyde is created in your own body.

    Whatever, the level of "toxins" from things you actually eat in ice cream and other foods is nothing compared to the effects of a real disease pathogen.

    This is off topic because it refers to a bacterial infection: I am still waiting for what toxin the the DTaP vaccine is more toxic than those created by the toxins created by the actual diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis bacteria.

    Though to make the question on topic: What part of the OPV and IPV is more dangerous than actually getting polio. Provide real scientific citations.

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