Mutant Strains Of Polio Vaccine Cause More Paraylsis Than Wild Polio

canada goose uk black friday For the first time, the number of children paralyzed by mutant strains of the polio vaccine are greater than the number of children paralyzed by polio itself. canada goose uk black friday

So far in 2017, there have been only six cases of “wild” polio reported anywhere Canada Goose Jackets in the world. Canada Goose Outlet By “wild,” public health officials mean the disease caused by polio virus found naturally in the environment.

Canada Goose Parka By contrast, there canada goose clearance have been 21 cases of vaccine derived polio this year. These cases look remarkably similar to regular polio. But laboratory tests show they’re caused by remnants of the oral polio buy canada goose jacket cheap vaccine that have gotten loose in the environment, mutated and regained their ability to paralyze unvaccinated children Canada Goose Parka

“It’s actually an interesting conundrum. The very tool you canada goose deals are using for [polio] eradication is causing the problem,” says Raul Andino, a professor of microbiology at the University of California at San Francisco.

Canada Goose Outlet The oral polio vaccine used throughout most of the developing world contains a form of the virus that has been weakened in the laboratory. But it’s still a live virus. and most developed countries. The injectable vaccine is far more expensive and does not contain live forms of the virus.) Canada Goose Outlet

buy canada goose jacket Andino studies how viruses mutate. In a study published in March, he and his colleagues found that the laboratory weakened virus used in the oral polio vaccine can very rapidly regain its strength if it starts spreading on its own. After a child is vaccinated with live polio virus, the virus replicates inside the child’s intestine and eventually is excreted. In places with poor sanitation, fecal matter can enter the drinking water supply and the virus is able to start spreading from person to person. buy canada goose jacket

“We discovered there’s only a few [mutations] that have to happen and they happen rather quickly in the first month or two post vaccination,” Andino says. “As the virus starts circulating in the community, it acquires further mutations that make it basically indistinguishable from the wild type virus. It’s polio in terms of virulence and in terms of how the virus spreads.”

buy canada goose jacket cheap In June, the World Health Organization reported 15 cases canada goose clearance sale of children paralyzed in Syria by vaccine derived forms of polio. These cases come on top of two other vaccine derived polio cases earlier this year in Syria and four in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. buy canada goose jacket cheap

cheap canada goose uk “In Syria, there may be more cases coming up,” says, the director of polio eradication at the World Health Organization. He says lab work is still being done on about canada goose black friday sale a dozen more cases of paralysis to confirm whether they’re polio or something else. cheap canada goose uk

canadian goose jacket The cases in Syria are all in the east of the country near the border with Iraq. canadian goose jacket

It has become fairly common each year for there to be one or two small outbreaks of vaccine derived polio. These outbreaks tend to happen in conflict zones where health care cheap Canada Goose systems have collapsed.

canada goose black friday sale “These outbreaks canada goose are occurring only in very rare cases and only in places where children are not immunized,” says Zaffran. The regular polio vaccine protects children from vaccine derived strains of the virus just as it protects them from Canada Goose online regular polio. Vaccine derived outbreaks, he says, “occur where there are large pockets of canada goose store unimmunized children, pockets sufficiently large to allow for the circulation of Canada Goose sale the virus.” canada goose black friday sale

canada goose coats on sale WHO is staging a massive response to the Syrian outbreak. WHO plans to work with local health officials and aid groups to vaccinate a quarter of a million children in early July. The goal is to reach every child younger than 5 in the area with two doses of two different types of polio vaccine, spaced one to two weeks apart. This would be a logistical challenge in most parts of the world, never mind in war torn Syria. canada goose coats on sale

Canada Goose Coats On Sale “The access in these areas is a bit limited because of the presence of ISIS,” Zaffran says in what seems like an understatement. Eastern Syria is home right now to Syrians who’ve fled from Raqqa (the ISIS capital in Syria), other parts of the country and even Iraq. “Also there’s a risk that the fighting might actually move to this area.” Canada Goose Coats On Sale

Zaffran is confident that the rogue vaccine derived virus circulating in eastern Syria right now can be wiped out with a massive blast of more canada goose coats on sale vaccine.

“We knew that we were going to have such outbreaks. We’ve had them in the past. We continue to have them now. We know how to find them, and we know how to interrupt them. We have the tools to do that,” Zaffran says. “So it’s hiccup. a very regrettable hiccup for the poor children that have been paralyzed, of course. But with regards to the whole initiative, you know it’s not something that is unexpected.”

WHO is attempting to phase out the use of live oral polio vaccine to eliminate the risk that the active virus in the vaccine could mutate into a form that can harm unvaccinated children.

But for now, the live vaccine continues to be the workhorse of canada goose outlet the global polio eradication campaign for a couple of reasons. First it’s cheap, costing only about 10 cents a dose versus $3 a dose for the injectable, killed vaccine. Second, it can be given as drops into a child’s mouth, which makes it far easier to administer than the inactivated or “killed” vaccine, which has to be injected. Third, there simply isn’t enough killed canada goose coats vaccine on the market to vaccinate every child on the planet, and vaccine manufacturers don’t have the capacity to produce the quantities that would be needed if such a switch happened immediately.

canada goose store And finally, the live vaccine stops transmission of the polio virus entirely in a community if sufficient numbers of people are vaccinated. The killed vaccine doesn’t fully block the virus from spreading because a person who is immunized can still carry and spread the polio virus. And this is an important difference between these two types of vaccines when the goal is to exterminate the polio virus. canada goose store

Canada Goose Online “The fact is this [the live oral polio vaccine] is the only tool that we have that can eradicate the disease,” says Zaffran. Canada Goose Online

Canada Goose sale That eradication effort has been incredibly successful. In 1988, when the campaign began, there were 350,000 cases of polio around the world each year compared with the six so far this year. Canada Goose sale

canada goose coats Zaffran credits the oral polio vaccine with getting the world incredibly close to wiping out a terrible disease. canada goose coats

cheap Canada Goose “Four regions of the world have totally eradicated the disease with the use of the oral polio vaccine,” he notes. “Of course we need to recognize that there have Canada Goose Parka been a few cases of children canadagooseoutlets paralyzed because of the vaccine virus, which is regrettable. But, you know, from a public health perspective, the benefits far outweigh the risk.” cheap Canada Goose.