Jan 27, 2012

Polio eradication, a dubious claim. It is possible that the oral polio vaccine mutated into a new virus, which causes paralysis.


 
Incidence of limb-paralysis in children arguably increased after the oral polio vaccination drive.
Health officials seem to be in a self-congratulatory mode, since no case of paralytic polio has been reported during 2011. But that doesn't mean that polio has been eradicated. As has happened in some other countries, polio cases can reappear.
Secondly, different public health experts have pointed out that polio cannot be eradicated through vaccination alone. Poliomyelitis, like many other infectious diseases, is primarily a disease of poverty, leading to insanitation and malnourishment. In developed countries, polio declined along with improvement in living standards, including sanitation. Vaccination played only a supplementary role in the disappearance of polio cases.