Why the WHO's News Release on Polio in Nigeria is Nonsense

The World Health Organization has recently stated that 69 people in northern Nigeria have caught vaccine-derived polio from vaccinated children and blames it on those people not being vaccinated themselves. (Link to the News Story) They state that low vaccination rates are due to Muslim paranoia.

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

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

There are several things wrong with this assessment.

1. The Us Centers for Disease Control Discontinued Use of the OPV in 2000

The OPV uses a live, laboratory-created version of the polio virus to fight polio. While it is presumably quite effective at preventing the wild, natural virus from spreading, there are ample documented cases of people contracting paralytic polio from the OPV version of the virus after getting the vaccine.

For this reason, the CDC recommended discontinuing its use.

"...for a few people (about one in 2.4 million), OPV actually causes polio. Since the risk of getting polio in the United States is now extremely low, experts believe that using oral polio vaccine is no longer worth the slight risk, except in limited circumstances which your doctor can describe. The polio shot (IPV) does not cause polio. If you or your child will be getting OPV, ask for a copy of the OPV supplemental Vaccine Information Statement." (source link)

2. The Vaccine Manufacturers' Package Inserts Warn That The OPV Sometimes Causes Polio

Manufacturers of the OPV specifically state that the OPV can cause paralytic polio (poliomyelitis) in some recipients of the vaccine. Note they don't just say that it spreads to unvaccinated people - they state it can be given to those who receive the vaccine.

POLIORAL (Read the Package Insert Here)

"Vaccine-associated poliomyelitis has been reported in a small number of recipients of oral polio vaccine and in contacts of recipients. Contacts of recently immunized babies and infants should be advised of the need for strict personal hygiene, particularly hand washing after napkin changing."

CONNAUGHT OPV (Read The Package Insert Here)

"The virus persists in the throat for 1 to 2 weeks; it is excreted in the feces for several weeks, and, rarely, for more than 2 months. This may lead to infection of close contacts which is regarded as largely beneficial since it results in protection of more individuals than the number actually vaccinated. In a very small number of infected contacts, especially adults, paralytic disease may occur."

Note that this manufacturer actually says that spreading the virus is actually beneficial, regardless for the risk of paralytic polio.

ORIMUNE (Read The Package Insert Here)

"Poliomyelitis has occurred after OPV administration both in vaccinees and in their close contacts. Poliovirus may be shed in the feces (and possibly from the pharynx) of vaccinees for 6-8 weeks after OPV administration. Contact individuals should be warned of the small risk of developing poliomyelitis and informed to wash hands carefully when exposed to feces or saliva of recently inoculated vaccinees."

3. The World Health Organization Themselves Say The OPV Spreads Polio

This last October 2006, the WHO released an announcement admitting that use of the OPV spreads non-wild polio and that a truly effective polio campaign needs to reduce the use of the OPV in order to reduce the number of vaccine-related paralytic polio.

The full statement can be found on the second page of this PDF file, released by the WHO themselves.

4. NO VACCINE Should Be Used on HIV Positive of Immuno-Compromised Individuals

Every vaccine, including the OPV, includes a warning on its package insert against use in individuals who have weakened immune systems or who are HIV positive.

POLIORAL

"CONTRA-INDICATIONS:
Pregnancy.
Immunosupression resulting from treatment or disease.
Should not be given to contacts of immunosuppressed patients."

CONNAUGHT OPV

"OPV must never be given to patients who are immunodeficient including persons known to be HIV infected, those on immunosuppressive therapy, and to persons who will have household, or similar close contact with such patients in the following 4 weeks. These patients and their contacts may be given IPV without risk, but the protection afforded to immunocompromised persons may be limited."

ORRIMUNE

"OPV may not be as immunogenic in elderly patients or in patients suffering from immunosuppression (congenital, acquired, or iatrogenic). Furthermore, virus particle production can be potentiated in immunosuppressed patients, so OPV use is not recommended in these individuals. Patients with HIV infection may receive IPV or enhanced-potency IPV; however, OPV should be avoided."

5. Nigeria Has a High Population of HIV-Positive Individuals

According to this document of statistics released by the by the Henry J Keiser Family Foundation, "Nigeria has the third highest number of people estimated to be living with HIV/AIDS in the world, after South Africa and India." They go on to stay that it is especially high among the young people, and that their number of AIDS orphans is staggering.

Given these numbers, the OPV is obviously contraindicated for Nigeria's population. However, those pushing the OPV agenda are failing to see the connection and risking the health and lives of innocent Nigerians.

A similar situation has been happening in Uganda. Kihura Nkuba, founder of Greater African Radio and president of the East African World Broadcasters Association, and director of the Pan-African Center for Strategic and International Studies, has said the following about the gravity of the situation:

"When I looked at the contra-indications it stated that inactivated polio vaccine and not oral polio vaccine should be used in situations where families had HIV - where there was a history of HIV in the family. And when I got this information I was really shocked because since 1984 Uganda has had a very difficult HIV and AIDS problem. In fact it says that if a child is inadvertently given the oral polio vaccine, that that child should be quarantined for four to seven weeks because oral polio vaccine is "live" and they keep shedding it between that period, and they could contaminate other people........It (CDC) says that persons who have congenitally acquired immune deficiency disease -e.g. combined immune deficiency, blah, blah - should not be given oral polio vaccine because of their substantially increased risk for vaccine associated disease.

Now, they continue: they say "inactivated polio vaccine and not oral polio vaccine should be used to vaccinate immunodeficient persons and their household contacts." .....I rang the Centers for Disease Control and they have a line of experts that you can ask different questions. And I said 'I am living in America and I want to go to Uganda, and my children have not received oral polio vaccination. And they said 'No, they can't receive oral polio vaccination in this country.' I said 'Why not ?' and they said 'Well, you can get polio from oral polio vaccination.' ......So I said 'What if I have a history of HIV and I receive oral polio ?' They said 'That would be really pretty dangerous. It could be a death sentence.'

"I was told by this preacher that when the government introduced the National Immunization Days in 1997, most of the children after vaccination started dying. The preacher told me that they had so much death that his cassock, that he wears to go and conduct the burial ceremony, got old. He said "I buried the children and my cassock got old." In the same room there was one mother who had four children, and she hid one and took three other children for vaccination, and three children died and that one survived.

Now when I went to do my presentation and I asked most of the people who were there - about two, three thousand people - each person had the same story. .........At the main hospital in Mbarara during that month of 1977 more than 600 children had died following polio vaccination. 600 children ! So even some of the timid medical practitioners who were initially afraid to come out, started coming out giving information and saying 'Oh, we knew this oral polio vaccine was trouble because as soon as the child receives it, they get a temper-ature and their health goes downhill and there is nothing that you could do.' " Kihura Nkuba (Nov 2002)

6. Polio Can Only Be Eradicated By the Attenuated (Killed Virus) Polio Vaccine and Clean Water Sources

Polio is passed primarily through the feces. In fact, the proliferation of many infectious diseases is related to hygiene and access to sanitary conditions. If the powers that be really want to solve the problem of polio, and most diseases in general, the number one solution is to bring people clean water for drinking and cleaning clothing and eating utensils. Functional sanitation systems would solve many of the world's health problems, and clean water would also help with agriculture, bringing greater health to communities.

At the very least, the OPV should be dropped, regardless of its low cost and ease of use. We should not push onto poor people what we would never use on ourselves. It is not only unethical, it is inhumane.