Health: LONDON: Europe is facing its biggest threat in decades of importing the crippling polio virus. The World Health Organization fears that the new outbreak of polio in Syria with the WPV1 strain, the most dangerous type of polio virus that cripples most of the children it infects, might endanger neighbouring regions, including Europe. Two world renowned infectious disease experts have confirmed the real threat. On Wednesday, the WHO increased the number of people it said must be vaccinated to 20 million as part of a vaccination campaign that will target children in Syria, Turkey, Lebanon, Iraq, Jordan, Israel and the Palestinian territories. Most of the 22 cases of polio-like paralysis in Syria (10 of which have been confirmed as wild poliovirus type) are among children below the age of two who were either not immunized or had not received all three doses of the vaccine, according to WHO. Professor Martin Eichner of the University of Tubingen and Stefan Brockmann of Reutlingen Regional Public Health Office in Germany explain that most European countries today use inactivated polio vaccine (IPV) rather than oral polio vaccination (OPV), which has been discontinued in most areas due to rare cases of it causing acute flacid paralysis (AFP), the main symptom of polio. In Europe, where the circulating polio viruses have been eliminated for decades, transmission can only be prevented by IPV if vaccination coverage is continually very high, and if the population has high hygienic standards and low crowding. The experts say that as large numbers of refugees are fleeing Syria and seeking refuge in neighbouring countries and Europe, there is now a chance that the virus could be reintroduced into areas which have been polio-free for decades. The authors warned in the Lancet that in regions of Europe where vaccination coverage is low (including Bosnia and Herzegovina, Ukraine, and Austria), herd immunity may be insufficient to prevent sustained transmission if the polio virus is reintroduced into the community. Moreover, because only one in 200 WPV1 infections causes symptomatic disease, the authors calculate that the virus might be circulating for nearly a year before a single case of AFP arises and an outbreak can be detected, even though by this time hundreds of individuals might carry the infection. According to the authors, vaccinating only Syrian refugees—as has been recommended by the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control—must be judged as insufficient. Oral polio vaccination provides high protection against acquisition and spreading of the infection, but this vaccine was discontinued in Europe because of rare cases of vaccination-related acute flaccid paralysis. Only some of the European Union member states still allow its use and none has a stockpile of oral polio vaccines.
Posted on: Sat, 09 Nov 2013 16:45:04 +0000
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