3b.8 Isn't it true that wild polio has been eliminated in the US?
Description
This article is from the Childhood Vaccinations FAQ, by Lynn Gazis-Sax lynng@alsirat.com with numerous contributions by others.
3b.8 Isn't it true that wild polio has been eliminated in the US?
From Mike Dedek:
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>From The Reuter Library Report, 2/26/93, "U.N. Warns on need for Polio
Immunisation" copyright 1993 Reuters:
The last outbreak of polio took place in the Netherlands 15 years
ago. The virus was carried to Canada and the United States by
infected people visiting their relatives, the WHO said. This caused
the United States' last polio outbreak which hit the Amish community
in the state of Pennsylvania in 1979.
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>From The [London] Independent, 2/9/93, pg. 12, "Why child vaccines may be a
shot in the dark", by Tessa Thomas:
After numerous cases in which the ''live'' oral polio vaccination was
found to have caused the disease, the American government is
considering reintroducing the inactivated injectable version. In the
UK, the Department of Health advocates the live version on the basis
that it deactivates any wild polio virus that reaches the gut,
preventing it being excreted into the community, thus conferring
community protection. The injectable vaccine acts only on the
bloodstream, protecting the individual but not breaking the chain of
infection. Lobbying by the Association of Parents of Vaccine Damaged
Children has prompted an acknowledgement by Virginia Bottomley, the
Secretary of State for Health, that the live vaccine is responsible
for 50 per cent of recent new cases of polio. Between 1978 and 1991
there were 42 cases of polio, 18 of which followed vaccination and
nine of which followed infection through contact with the vaccinated
child.
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The Atlanta Journal and Constitution, 12/19/92, "Cases in Netherlands put
Americas at risk for polio", by Steve Sternberg, Section E; pg. 1
The last polio case in the Americas emerged on Aug. 23, 1991 in the remote
Peruvian highlands village of Pichinaki...
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UPI 12/10/92:
Except for a few rare vaccine-associated cases, there have been no
cases of polio in the United States since 1986 when there was one
imported case. The current vaccine, Sutter said, is close to 100
percent effective in preventing the disease.
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MMWR's Summary of Notifiable Diseases, United States, 1997 (MMWR,
November 20, 1998 / 46(54);1-87) reports that "Since 1980, a total of
147 cases have been reported, of which 139 were associated with the
use of OPV. The last imported case was reported in 1993."
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