[NVIC] Live Polio Vaccine Causes Minnesota Polio Cases

[Guest guest]

It is becoming my opinion that paralytic polio was NEVER caused by a virus

or the polio virus, but by toxins in the form of pesticides heavily used

See

http://www.geocities.com/harpub/

So, I'm not sure that the oral polio vaccine can 'cause' paralytic polio,

either, at this point in my understanding. I would suggest that possibly

toxic exposure causes those symptoms also but still trying to work that out.

Sheri

E-NEWS FROM THE NATIONAL VACCINE INFORMATION CENTER

Vienna, Virginia http://www.nvic.org

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

UNITED WAY/COMBINED FEDERAL CAMPAIGN

#8122

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

" Protecting the health and informed consent rights of children since 1982. "

============================================================================

==============

BL Fisher Note:

The bigger question is why is live oral polio vaccine (OPV) being used by

any country in the world? It has long been known that OPV can cause vaccine

strain polio infection in those who get it or those who come into close

contact with a recently vaccinated individual. The vaccine, not the wild

virus, caused these cases of paralytic polio. The responsibility for that

belongs with government health officials, the pharmaceutical industry and

doctors who have failed to make sure that the inactivated polio vaccine is

used in every country. The responsibility certainly does not belong with

those who, for religious, medical or other reasons, did not vaccinate.

http://www.canada.com/health/story.html?id=e4d12430-6ab7-4fac-880b-e58008c63

65c

Canada.com

Ontario community being monitored after possible exposure to polio

Sheryl Ubelacker

Canadian Press

Friday, November 11, 2005

TORONTO (CP) - Canadian public health officials are keeping a close eye on a

southwestern Ontario Amish community after residents there may have been

exposed to a vaccine-related form of polio through visitors from the United

States.

For privacy reasons, Canadian officials will not specifically identify the

Ontario community, but it is located somewhere in Middlesex County, which

includes such cities as London and Woodstock. In early October, some of the

Middlesex Amish visited an Amish settlement in Minnesota and a week later,

some of the U.S. families were at a wedding in the Ontario community,

attended by about 1,000 people.

The Minnesota settlement has since been experiencing a mini-outbreak of

infection with vaccine-associated polio, or VAP.

On Oct. 14, health officials began testing stool and saliva samples from

willing members of the Middlesex community, said Jensen, a spokesman

for the Ontario Ministry of Health.

" To date, all the tests are negative, " Jensen said Thursday. " Seventeen

people have been immunized ... and there are others in the community who are

interested in being immunized. "

Dr. Graham Pollett, Middlesex County's medical officer of health, said those

results still have to be confirmed by tests being done at the public health

lab in Winnipeg, where the samples are cultured. Many samples were

submitted, Pollett told the London Free Press, but he would not specify the

number.

The Middlesex-London Health Unit won't know for about a week if the area is

in the clear, Pollett said.

The polio cases in the central Minnesota community of 24 families began when

an eight-month-old girl was found to be carrying the virus, which spread to

four children at two neighbouring farms. None of the children has developed

symptomatic disease from the infection.

The child, whose name is being withheld by health officials, has an immune

deficiency that doesn't allow her body to rid itself of the virus. It's not

known how the youngster contracted the virus, but she may have been infected

while in hospital in August, picking up the polio strain through another

immune-deficient patient who may have carried the virus for years.

A diagnosis of polio infection was confirmed Sept. 27 after the child was

given tests due to severe diarrhea, said Dr. Harry Hull, the state

epidemiologist for Minnesota.

" The best explanation ... is that somehow an immuno-deficient person who's

chronically infected with the virus, who's come in from outside the country

or somebody from this country who's gone overseas and either got vaccinated

or picked up a vaccine virus there, has somehow exposed this child ...

directly or indirectly, " Hull, the former head of polio eradication for the

World Health Organization, said Thursday from St. , Minn.

And because there is significant visiting among these far-flung, close-knit

religious groups - whose members are underimmunized - there is " potential

for the virus to spread beyond the initial community to other communities in

the United States and presumably in Canada, " Hull said.

" Polio is a bit like a wildfire. It will burn through a susceptible

community very fast. It's a very infectious virus. So for it to spread, it

has to keep finding new susceptibles. And if it doesn't, it just dies out.

" The general population is very highly immunized in both the United States

and Canada, and if you're immunized you're not going to get polio, " he said,

noting that one in 200 people infected with the virus develops the

paralysis-causing disease.

Genetic testing shows the virus in the little Amish girl was almost

identical to that of the oral polio vaccine given in much of the world, but

not in the United States. Slight genetic alterations in the virus suggested

that it had been circulating for at least two years, Hull said. The child

has never been overseas.

While the United States and Canada have high vaccination rates, some parents

are not having their children inoculated for fear the vaccines may cause

side-effects such as autism. Others - among them, many in the religious and

tightly knit Mennonite, Hutterite and Amish communities - eschew

inoculations, believing vaccinations weaken the immune system.

Vaccine-associated polio is related to the oral polio vaccine, which

contains a live but weakened form of the virus. While extremely effective in

producing immunity to polio infection, it is no longer recommended in Canada

or the United States because in rare instances, it can actually cause

paralytic polio. The injectable polio vaccine, which contains killed virus

and is used in Canada and the United States, does not cause disease.

About one in two million people given the oral vaccine will develop polio,

says the U.S. Centres for Disease Control and Prevention.

The CDC informed Canada's Public Health Agency about the polio outbreak in

Minnesota - and its possible transmission in Ontario - in early fall. The

PHAC then informed the provinces and territories.

" We have been working closely with the provinces and territories, putting

the risk into context and advising what can be done, such as enhanced

surveillance, vaccinations and public health measures such as hand-washing

(and) safe food preparation techniques, " PHAC spokeswoman Aggie Adamczyk

said from Ottawa.

Vaccine-associated polio is spread by stool contamination to the mouth.

" For the general community in Canada, I would say that this is a reminder of

the importance of keeping your children immunized, " said Hull, " but not just

against polio, but measles and diphtheria and tetanus and all those nasty

diseases.

" Because they're out there in the rest of the world and they can come back

into our countries where they are usually absent. "

=============================================

News@... is a free service of the National Vaccine Information

Center and is supported through membership donations. Learn more about

vaccines, diseases and how to protect your informed consent rights

http://www.nvic.org

Become a member and support NVIC's work

https://www.nvic.org/making%20cash%20donations.htm

To sign up for a free e-mail subscription http://www.nvic.org/emaillist.htm