In article <mikep.295.000B0589 at uniwa.uwa.edu.au>, mikep at uniwa.uwa.edu.au
(Michael Poidinger) wrote:
> In article <Pine.3.88.9410150909.A2272-0100000 at server>
mmink at SERVER.NYBC.ORG (Michael mink) writes:
> >From: mmink at SERVER.NYBC.ORG (Michael mink)
> >Subject: Re: Polio vaccination
> >Date: 15 Oct 1994 06:44:09 -0700
>> >It was reported at the Cold Spring Harbor Symposium on Molecular
> >Approaches to the Control of Infectious Diseases that polio has been
> >effectively eliminated from the western hemisphere as of September 29th,
> >1994.
>> >Congradulations to the science of Virology!
> >M. Mink
> >New York Blood Center
> >mmink at server.nybc.org>> Yes, well this is a bit of a misguiding comment. Wildtype polio has been
> eliminated. Attenuated vaccine strains still run strong in the Western
World,
> and they can occasionally cause problems. There was a man that contracted
> polio from changing the nappies on his baby last year, after said baby was
> vaccinated but the vaccine reverted. Polio virus, in one form or another,
> will be around for a while to come.
>> Mike
Very interesting indeed! Especially since Phil Minor documented several
years ago that neurovirulent revertants of attenuated vaccine strains
could be isolated out of the feces of immunized babies 24-72 hours
post-inoculation. I thought that I had heard of cases some three or four
years ago of cases where non-immunized grandparents had been infected by
newly immunized babies and had successfully sued the physicians on the
grounds that adequate warning had not been given as to the risk involved.
But to declare that wild-type polio is effectively eliminated is rather
premature.
Lyle
My opinions are my own. They are given freely and, as such, are worth
exactly what you paid for them.
