Is polio re-emerging in Venezuela nearly 30 years after eradication?

[Sgent]

Source: CNN

(CNN)A child has been diagnosed with a common symptom of polio in Venezuela, where the infectious viral disease has been eradicated since 1989, according to the Pan American Health Organization, a regional apparatus of the World Health Organization. The Western Hemisphere has been certified polio-free since 1994.

In a statement to CNN, the WHO said, "an acute flaccid paralysis case is currently being investigated" in the state of Delta Amacuro, Venezuela. Acute flaccid paralysis is a sudden onset of weakness in or loss of the ability to move any part of the body of a child less than 15 years of age. Until additional laboratory results are received, polio cannot be confirmed, the WHO said.

"Final results are expected over the coming weeks. Acute flaccid paralysis is caused by a number of different causalities, poliovirus being just one of them," according to the WHO.

This diagnosis of acute flaccid paralysis in a child comes as Venezuela, with an estimated population of 31.3 million, experiences political and economic turmoil, resulting in a humanitarian and health care crisis.


Read more: https://www.cnn.com/2018/06/11/health/venezuela-polio-who/index.html

[ehrnst]

1. I hope this cuts through the fear and privilege of those

who can vaccinate their kids, but refuse to.

[Archae]

2. Are you kidding?

This is another of the anti-vaxx "conspiracies."

"Big Pharma is bringing back those terrible diseases just to make money!"

[hlthe2b]

3. Premature...

Several other viruses, including mosquito borne West Nile Virus and Guillain Barre' syndrome from a not uncommon bacterial cause of food poisoning (Campylobacter), can cause this. Other enteric viruses as well. Not to mention a number of toxic causes.

I'll wait for lab confirmation and wish that CNN would too.

[Sgent]

4. It apparently is based on

https://www.paho.org/hq/index.php?option=com_docman&task=doc_download&Itemid=&gid=45361&lang=en and there has been one positive type 3 test at the national lab and at least one other child displaying symptoms. They are waiting for confirmation testing from a regional lab but have isolated at least one sample.

[hlthe2b]

5. Venezuelan National Labs not confirmed... Must be confirmed by one of the 17 WHOregional or 6 global

specialized labs. Nor can the national lab reliably differentiate wild type from vaccine strain virus

[OnlinePoker]

6. If it is confirmed, it will likely be a vaccine-derived case given no WPV for years

Here's an explanation:

Vaccine-derived polioviruses (VDPVs) are rare strains of poliovirus that have genetically mutated from the strain contained in the oral polio vaccine. The oral polio vaccine contains a live, attenuated(weakened) vaccine-virus. When a child is vaccinated,the weakened vaccine-virus replicates in the intestine and enters into the bloodstream, triggering a protective immune response in the child. Like wild poliovirus, the child excretes the vaccine-virus for a period of six to eight weeks. Importantly, as it is excreted, some of the vaccine-virus may no longer be the same as the original vaccine-virus as it has genetically altered during replication. This is called a VDPV.

http://polioeradication.org/polio-today/polio-prevention/the-virus/vaccine-derived-polio-viruses/

The different types and descriptors of these are at the bottom of the link.

[RobinA]

9. Interesting

Thank you.

[7962]

7. Everything else has gone wrong there, so why not this? What a failure. And what a shame.

The people deserve so much better but they're stuck with Maduro and the joke of "revolution" until the military sees its time for a change.

[JI7]

8. Fuck Maduro

[OnlinePoker]

11. An update - Not polio

Update on suspected polio case in Venezuela

Following unconfirmed reports on 8 June of suspected polio re-emergence in Venezuela, final laboratory testing has confirmed the cause of the paralysis is not wild poliovirus or vaccine-derived poliovirus.

A 34-month old child had presented with symptoms of acute flaccid paralysis (AFP) on 29 April, from a community with low vaccination coverage in Orinoco delta, Delta Amacuro state.

A Sabin type 3 poliovirus was isolated from stool samples of the child. Isolation of Sabin type 3 poliovirus can be expected in children and communities immunized with bivalent oral polio vaccine, which contains attenuated (weakened) type 1 and type 3 Sabin strains. Final laboratory analysis received today has confirmed that the AFP symptoms are not associated with wild or vaccine-derived poliovirus.

http://polioeradication.org/news-post/update-on-suspected-polio-case-in-venezuela/