INCOMPLETE POLIO SCIENCE - THE NEED TO LOOK BEYOND POLIO VACCINES

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* Health and Healing *

Monday, April 22, 2002 7:16 AM

INCOMPLETE POLIO SCIENCE - THE NEED TO LOOK BEYOND

POLIO VACCINES

 

 

- http://www.redflagsweekly.com/urnovitz/2002_april22.html -

 

April 22, 2002

 

INCOMPLETE POLIO SCIENCE

 

 

 

By Howard Urnovitz

 

Two articles in the April 12, 2002 edition of Science focus attention on a

recent outbreak of paralytic disease on the island of Hispaniola. One of the

concerns raised is that a type of polio-related virus utilized in polio vaccine

underwent changes and combined with a " wild type " enterovirus, and then spread

to cause more than 20 virus-confirmed cases of paralytic poliomyelitis.

 

It’s unfortunate that the authors of these reports had blinders on when they

considered what might have occurred on Hispaniola. It seems their strategy is to

keep using only the current polio vaccines to " eradicate poliovirus from the

face of the Earth, " as one of them put it. Well, go ahead and try, but that

would stop short of eradicating paralytic disease.

 

What I find to be the most disturbing part of reports such as these is the

admission that public health doctors know that thousands of cases of childhood

paralysis occur without any evidence of a poliovirus involvement.

 

The fact is that early polio researchers, namely Salk and Sabin, were like

Columbus: they never quite got us to the shores of the new world, but showed us

how to get there.

 

In the 1940s and early '50s, there was a frantic race to develop a vaccine that

would prevent poliomyelitis. In 1954, a comprehensive clinical trial of the Salk

poliomyelitis vaccine was conducted, after which it was declared safe and

effective. Subsequently, a mass vaccination program was mounted in the United

States, with the goal of immunizing every man, woman, and child against the

poliovirus, seen as the cause of poliomyelitis.

 

When the 1957 Final Report, " Evaluation of the 1954 Field Trial of Poliomyelitis

Vaccine " (referred to as " The 1954 Polio Study " ), was published, however, it

showed a significant number of poliomyelitis cases with no laboratory signs of

associated poliovirus. Additionally, the 1954 mass clinical trial of the

poliomyelitis vaccine showed that causal factors other than the poliovirus were

associated with paralytic disease.

 

Why, then, was the poliovirus vaccine declared to be the only effective weapon

against paralytic disease? The 1954 Polio Study defined the detection of

poliovirus antibodies as the surrogate marker for protection against the virus.

Most people who received the vaccine developed those antibodies, including many

of the children who acquired poliomyelitis even after vaccination. These

paralyzed children have been called " breakthrough cases, " the term used to

describe individuals who develop the target disease despite having received the

vaccine. The 1954 Polio Study provides data showing that there were

approximately 10% to 22% breakthrough cases in two different studies. Now that’s

a lot of " breakthrough. "

 

It's hard to believe that the strength of the data from the 1954 Polio Study did

not compel doctors to get back to the laboratory immediately to solve the

problems that the study revealed -- i.e., that the poliovirus vaccine is far

less than 100% effective. What is even harder for me to digest is that public

health doctors don't believe these data produced by the 1954 Polio Study, don't

know about them, or simply don't care.

 

But why should they care? Public health doctors still get paid, as long as the

public thinks vaccination and other public health measures are working.

 

The 1954 clinical trials for the polio vaccine showed us that the most severe

cases of paralytic polio could be prevented if children were inoculated.

 

So the real problem is that, half a century after the 1954 clinical trials, we

have not continued on the scientific journey to save children from childhood

paralysis. When events occur such as those on the island of Hispaniola, it

should provide science with the opportunity to do some additional Eand

innovative Eresearch, and not simply refer back to well-established ideas that

cannot explain the totality of paralytic disease.

 

 

 

RECOMMENDED READING

 

Will the Poliovirus Eradication Program Rid The World Of Paralytic Polio?

By Neenyah Ostrom

 

Howard Urnovitz’s Congressional Testimony On This Subject

 

 

 

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