sterbo

So is this just a coincidence; simply a tragic turn of events?

Or is there truth to those who feel it represents yet another, for lack of a better term, conspiracy in Western subjugation of the so called 'third world'...

"Vaccine-linked polio hits Nigeria -

Nigeria is fighting a rare outbreak of a vaccine-derived form of polio, says the UN's World Health Organization.

It says 69 children in the north have caught the paralyzing disease from others who had already been immunized.

The WHO says such rare outbreaks have occurred where immunization campaigns did not reach enough of the population.

In 2003 Islamic leaders brought a temporary halt to the vaccine campaign in the north saying it was a Western conspiracy to sterilize Muslim women.

The WHO says this rare outbreak of vaccine-derived polio demonstrates the need for more vaccination, not less.

But the concern is that the cause of the outbreak could be misinterpreted by people here and reinforce their skepticism of the whole vaccine campaign.

Scare stories

The WHO says the outbreak occurred when some of those who had received the oral polio vaccine excreted a mutated form of the virus which infected those who were not immunized.

It says the outbreak is ongoing but slowing because of the continuing vaccination campaign, and the last reported case was in August.

The WHO says the outbreak occurred because not enough people were receiving the polio vaccine in the first place.

Northern Nigeria still has a low coverage rate for the vaccination campaign, a legacy of a temporary halt to the programme in 2003.

Those scare stories built on existing traditional skepticism of Western medicine.

But more recently the vaccination programme has made some progress.

Polio cases as a whole are down on last year, in part because of a new programme of polio victims accompanying immunization teams to demonstrate to parents the risks of not having their children vaccinated."*


*-BBC News, Lagos

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green medicine

My guess: unfortunate coincidence. It can be difficult in some areas of Africa to get people to buy into vaccinations and overall western medicine. I'm not clear on how the disease makes the leap from a recently vaccinated person to an unvaccinated one. Do we have any medical professionals that can weigh in on this matter?

Trocisp

I'm not a medical professional, but I'm somewhat well educated about the anatomy and science in general... so I'll take the leap and go ahead and answer.

And, I read the article.
"The WHO says the outbreak occurred when some of those who had received the oral polio vaccine excreted a mutated form of the virus which infected those who were not immunized."

I get the vaccine, then I poop. In my poop is a virus that is strong enough to infect an non-immunized person, but not a person who has been exposed to a damaged form of the virus (me, immunized). My poop is then used as fertilizer on a farm. You then eat something with poop on it. You now have the virus.

brendan_fn_james

verry good analogy but there is also the fact the virus cant live outside the body for very long as well

Trocisp

It wasn't an analogy, I was specifically telling you a way in which it happens. Some virii can't survive outside of the body for very long (HIV, for instance), where some can last hours or even days outside of the body (Certain strains of influenza).

Also, say you poop and don't wash your hands, you then shake hands with another person. Another way of transmission.

green medicine

pooh....

Broliette

I have my own opinions about immunizations.

I will say something such as that article; very sad and not very surprising.

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Ev0

Hey man even if it is true they should be thankful maybe it would slow them down so every other ten year old in the country doesn't get aids..

No but in all seriousness man why would we bother to screw over Africa they do a good enough job themselves.

MrVash

Thats pretty mean....