What is clear from this report, and well documented in peer-reviewed literature, is that the term “polio-free status” is completely meaningless. The designation of a country as “polio-free” is simply a triumphant marketing cry by pharmaceutical interests to continue promoting their live polio vaccines, even in the face of overwhelming evidence that oral polio vaccines do far more harm than good. The oral polio vaccine is banned in the United States and many other countries. Here are some excerpts from Vidya’s article: New Delhi: India will on Monday be accorded “polio-free” status by the World Health Organization (WHO), with not a single case of the crippling disease being reported in the past three years, but studies show the alarming rise of another similar paralytic condition that experts suspect may be a result of increased dosage of polio drops. The last case of polio in the country was reported on 13 January, 2011, from West Bengal. Following the “polio-free” status, India will be certified as a polio-free nation by March, leaving Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Nigeria as the remaining polio endemic countries. India’s dramatic turnout in polio eradication, though, has seen a consistent sidelining of the increasing incidence of non-polio acute flaccid paralysis (NPAFP) cases. In the last 13 months, India has reported at least 53,000 cases of NPAFP. Many health activists say the government, in its rush to get the polio-free certification for the country, ignored the increasing incidence of NPAFP. Acute flaccid paralysis (AFP) is a condition in which a patient suffers from paralysis that results in floppy limbs due to reduced muscle tone. While AFP is symptomatic of polio, it can be caused by other diseases such as the Guillain-Barre Syndrome and nerve lesions as well—the primary cause fueling the argument that India is not really free of wild polio virus.
Posted on: Mon, 20 Jan 2014 10:19:57 +0000
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