• We have updated the guidelines regarding posting political content: please see the stickied thread on Website Issues.

Polio Re-Surfaces: Recent Outbreaks

EnolaGaia

I knew the job was dangerous when I took it ...
(ACCOUNT RETIRED)
Joined
Jul 19, 2004
Messages
29,622
Location
Out of Bounds
The first case of wild polio infection in Africa since 2016 has emerged in Malawi.
Malawi detects polio, first wild case in Africa in over 5 years

Malawi’s health authorities have declared a polio outbreak after a case was detected in a young child in the capital Lilongwe, the first case of wild poliovirus in Africa in more than five years, the World Health Organization (WHO) said.

The WHO said in a statement that laboratory analysis showed the strain detected in Malawi was linked to one that has been circulating in Pakistan, where it is still endemic.

“As an imported case from Pakistan, this detection does not affect the African region’s wild poliovirus-free certification status,” the WHO said.

The Global Polio Eradication Initiative said the case in the southern African country was in a three-year-old girl who experienced the onset of paralysis in November last year.

Sequencing of the virus conducted in February by South Africa’s National Institute for Communicable Diseases and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention confirmed it as type 1 wild poliovirus (WPV1). ...

“Detection of WPV1 outside the world’s two remaining endemic countries, Pakistan and Afghanistan, is a serious concern and underscores the importance of prioritizing polio immunization activities,” the Global Polio Eradication Initiative said.

The WHO said the African continent could launch a rapid response because of a high level of polio surveillance.

“The last case of wild poliovirus in Africa was identified in northern Nigeria in 2016 and globally there were only five cases in 2021. ...
FULL STORY: https://www.cnn.com/2022/02/18/africa/malawi-wild-polio-outbreak-intl/index.html
 
Europe has been certified polio free, but someone from the country of Tajikistan has started a polio outbreak in Ukraine.

The war has caused the worst unsanitary condition favorable to unchecked polio spreading through the country.
 
Europe has been certified polio free, but someone from the country of Tajikistan has started a polio outbreak in Ukraine.

The war has caused the worst unsanitary condition favorable to unchecked polio spreading through the country.
!!! How do you find this stuff?!? Excellent. Thank you.
 
Well EA,

I don’t look for stuff, but news seems to show up on search sites like Google all the time.
 
Europe has been certified polio free, but someone from the country of Tajikistan has started a polio outbreak in Ukraine.
The war has caused the worst unsanitary condition favorable to unchecked polio spreading through the country.

For more on this story see this March 2022 TIME article:

Polio Makes a Comeback in Ukraine as War Halts Vaccination Campaign
https://time.com/6155963/polio-ukraine-war/
 
The UK Health Agency has declared a “ high incident “ as levels of polio virus type 2 has been found in the Beckton Sewage Planet East London.

Not since 2003 has this happened in London.

I assume most people in the UK have been vaccinated against polio ?
 
The UK Health Agency has declared a “ high incident “ as levels of polio virus type 2 has been found in the Beckton Sewage Planet East London.

Not since 2003 has this happened in London.

I assume most people in the UK have been vaccinated against polio ?

It's derived from a live polio vaccine injected into an individual abroad:

"The UK Health and Security Agency (UKHSA) said that a polio virus had been detected in sewage from North and East London in February.

The virus was originally shed from an individual who was vaccinated with a live virus abroad, but has since mutated into a type more like wild polio, which, on rare occasions, can infect the spinal cord and base of the brain, causing paralysis and breathing problems.

So far, there have been no reported cases of polio..."

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/20...l-incident-declared-uk-disease-spreads-first/

The issue is that there is a low uptake of polio vaccination in London, probably because of its high immigrant numbers:

“Most of the UK population will be protected from vaccination in childhood, but in some communities with low vaccine coverage, individuals may remain at risk.”

maximus otter
 
From what I read there are 3 types of Polio, and type 2 seems to be the “ rascal “ that is likely to appear.

Childhood vaccinations supposedly gives lifetime immunity unless one has an immune problem.
 
Beware of the fake news regarding Polio.

Claims are spreading online about what the detection of the polio virus in London sewage means.

UK health officials believe the polio they found in sewage samples may have been brought to the UK by someone who was vaccinated abroad with a live form of the virus..


But misleading posts, shared on Twitter and on the encrypted messaging app Telegram, are suggesting that vaccines in general can cause disease outbreaks.

Many of these come from people who have been campaigning against Covid vaccines.
Here's what we do know.

Can vaccines "shed" and infect people?​

There are different types of polio vaccine which are safe and highly effective at protecting people against polio.

The one currently given in the UK uses an inactivated or dead virus, meaning it cannot infect anyone or spread.

But some countries, which still have polio, give people live oral polio vaccines (which the UK used in the past) because they are particularly useful in dealing with current outbreaks. They contain a safe, weakened version of the polio virus. That does mean small traces of live virus can be shed from the gut of the person who has been vaccinated. In rare cases, that can be passed on to others - although it shouldn't make them ill, particularly if they have already been vaccinated themselves, according to Prof Beate Kampmann, an immunologist and vaccine expert at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.

It's estimated that 6.5 million children would have been paralysed by wild poliovirus in the last decade without the oral vaccine.

https://www.bbc.com/news/health-61915794
 
Most people I know who are against the Covid vaccine are pro vaccine for everything else.

As usual, the BBC and the MSM are creating the narrative they want people to have.
 
This is very worrying. I had thought it was just a disease that affected children, but now I have recently become aware that it can be caught by adults as well. And it wasn't so long ago that it had been pretty much eradicated here.
When will smallpox resurface?
 
This is very worrying. I had thought it was just a disease that affected children, but now I have recently become aware that it can be caught by adults as well. And it wasn't so long ago that it had been pretty much eradicated here.
When will smallpox resurface?
I suppose it was one of those things that "everyone" caught as a child and so were resistant by the time they became adults. If they became adults.
 
An adult was struck down and paralyzed with polio in a suburb of New York City called Rockland County

No information was given on the patient.

This is the first case in 10 years for New York.
I am guessing that the polio victim was not vaccinated against polio. I am guessing that it is because this unfortunate person was an Orthodox Jew from a sect which does not believe in vaccines. Rockland county has the highest percentage of Jews of all counties in the US. Orthodox Jewish communities in the US have ongoing problems with measles outbreaks, because of the resistance to vaccines.

A polio (or even measles) outbreak in a reclusive, tight-knit community which is vaccine resistant is a recipe for disaster for that community.

I hope @Victory can weigh in here with a perspective from another country.

I am vaccinated against polio, and don't worry much about it.
 
I am guessing that the polio victim was not vaccinated against polio. I am guessing that it is because this unfortunate person was an Orthodox Jew from a sect which does not believe in vaccines. Rockland county has the highest percentage of Jews of all counties in the US. Orthodox Jewish communities in the US have ongoing problems with measles outbreaks, because of the resistance to vaccines.

A polio (or even measles) outbreak in a reclusive, tight-knit community which is vaccine resistant is a recipe for disaster for that community.

I hope @Victory can weigh in here with a perspective from another country.

I am vaccinated against polio, and don't worry much about it.
I am also vaccinated against polio but does that give life time immunity?
 
I am guessing that the polio victim was not vaccinated against polio. I am guessing that it is because this unfortunate person was an Orthodox Jew from a sect which does not believe in vaccines. Rockland county has the highest percentage of Jews of all counties in the US. Orthodox Jewish communities in the US have ongoing problems with measles outbreaks, because of the resistance to vaccines.

A polio (or even measles) outbreak in a reclusive, tight-knit community which is vaccine resistant is a recipe for disaster for that community.

I hope @Victory can weigh in here with a perspective from another country.

I am vaccinated against polio, and don't worry much about it.
Actually it was more complicated - the best they're coming up with is that someone who was not vaccinated came into contact with someone who had received an oral vaccine which uses live viruses and has been known to cause contagion (hence not used in the US). I'm surprised that any kids are not vaccinated here against polio - I remember when the vaccine was invented and parents were dragging their kids to the vaccination centers, they were so frightened of the disease. Obviously we have forgotten. And you're referring to the ultra-orthodox, not just orthodox. It's a social thing not a religious stand. Judaism has nothing to say about vaccinations.


Subsequent - more general - discussion about religious attitudes toward vaccines and vaccinations have been spun off into this thread:

Religious Attitudes On Vaccinations (General; Miscellaneous)
https://forums.forteana.org/index.p...-on-vaccinations-general-miscellaneous.69691/
 
Last edited by a moderator:
New York Health Department issued a statement that the sewer water in and around Rockland County, New York is full of polio virus.

The Health Department claims that the polio virus has escaped into the general population and recommends citizens to again check with their doctor about polio vaccination.

The biggest concern is the unvaccinated population.
 
Odd. I and a coworker were just talking about smallpox and polio immunity this morning. And now I see this thread.

I think many people are becoming concerned and wondering if and for how long they are protected these seemingly old (as in long ago) viruses. Immunizing for smallpox in North America (rest of 1st world countries?) was fazed out in the '70's afaik.

Covid and now monkeypox has certainly increased the public's interest in known viral diseases and their vaccines. Or at least that's my impression.
 
The polio virus has found its way from Rockland County across the Hudson River to New York City,

New York City says the polio virus is in the city waste water and now circulating among the citizens of New York City.

Health Officials are very worried about the unvaccinated.
 
How many on this board recall the collecting boxes outside (UK) shops, which took the form of a young child in callipers due to polio?
Yep. The Spastics Society renamed themselves to Scope.
_84202824_1964doll.jpg
 
Back
Top