With all due respect, it is extremely misleading to post things to LactNet
which are not accurate. We should all check out our information with
credible sources, preferably multiple sources, before we post.
It is NOT TRUE that wild polio has been eradicated in the world. In the
Western Hemisphere, and some other parts of the world, yes, in the entire
world, absolutely not.
Here is a segment from the CDC web site about polio, from 2001:
Occurrence
In the prevaccine era, infection with poliovirus was common, with epidemics
occurring in the summer and fall in temperate areas. The incidence of
poliomyelitis fell rapidly after the licensure of inactivated polio vaccine
in 1955 and oral polio vaccine in the 1960s. The last cases of indigenously
acquired polio in the United States occurred in 1979. Although a polio
eradication program led to elimination of polio in the Western Hemisphere,
where the last case associated with wild poliovirus was detected in 1991, an
outbreak of vaccine-derived poliovirus type 1 occurred in the Dominican
Republic and Haiti in July 2000. In spite of this recent outbreak in the
Western Hemisphere, the global polio eradication initiative has reduced the
number of reported polio cases worldwide by >90% since the mid-1980s, and
worldwide eradication of the disease appears feasible in the near future.
Risk for Travelers
Travelers to countries where polio is epidemic or still endemic should be
fully immunized. Because of polio eradication efforts, the number of
countries where travelers are at risk for polio has decreased dramatically.
Concurrent with the decline in polio incidence, the number of polio-endemic
countries decreased from more than 120 in 1988 to approximately 50 in 1998.
Approximately 75% of the world’s population resides in areas now considered
free of wild poliovirus circulation, including the Western Hemisphere, the
Western Pacific Region (which encompasses China), and the European region.
Most of the world’s remaining poliovirus transmission is in two large
endemic areas in south Asia and sub-Saharan Africa. Accelerated polio
eradication strategies are being used in seven reservoir
countries—Bangladesh, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, India,
Nepal, Nigeria, and Pakistan—as well as in Afghanistan, Angola, Liberia,
Sierra Leone, Somalia, Sudan, and Tajikistan.
Me again -- note that most polio infections are asymptomatic, so no one
would know if a person infected with polio were to get on a plane and come
to the US. The regions of the world where wild polio is still very common
include Sub-Saharan Africa (where Mali is located). It is hoped that wild
polio can be eradicated from the world in the next decade or so through
extremely aggressive immunization campaigns. As with smallpox, once polio
has been eradicated, maybe then we can stop the immunizations. Although of
course, the US government is ramping up production of smallpox vaccine
because of the risk of bioterrorism attacks using smallpox.
Now, about measles. Someone posted to LactNet that recent measles outbreaks
in the US have been in vaccinated populations. This also is not true.
From Steven Dettwyler, Ph.D., Director of Immunization Programs for the
State of Delaware:
"The vast majority of measles we see in the US is imported (a child from
Mexico, Asia, etc). I don't know if these children were nursed, but I do
know that they did not get the measles vaccination. The only big outbreaks
of measles in the US among US children have occurred when the public decides
that they MMR vaccine is not worth the risk. Outbreaks occur like clockwork
in the US, Japan, England and Ireland each time the immunization rates
decrease. If you follow the statistics of outbreaks you can see that what
this person is saying is simply not true and based on simplified and partial
information."
Me again:
Last year, there was a measles outbreak in Texas from a planeload of
children from China coming to the US to be adopted by US families.
In the late 1980s or early 1990s, there were some local outbreaks of measles
in the US among teenagers/college students who had received only the early
childhood vaccine. That is why it is now recommended that older children
get a booster.
Vaccines do not 'take' in everyone (I've had numerous rubella vaccines that
didn't result in any antibody production), or do not take strongly enough to
produce complete protection.
It is not appropriate to compare the death or disability of a child from a
vaccination to the death or disability of a child from the disease the
vaccination protects against. If you understand epidemiology and relative
risk, then you know that the death and disability caused by NOT vaccinating
is much higher than the death and disability caused by vaccinating.
Vaccinating is not risk-free, to be sure. But is much lower-risk than not
vaccinating. All of the scientific research bears this out. There are no
credible studies linking vaccines to autism.
Kathy Dettwyler
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