Polio News and Research

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Poliomyelitis (polio) is a highly infectious disease caused by a virus that invades the nervous system and can cause severe paralysis. The virus enters the body through the mouth and multiplies in the intestine. Initial symptoms are fever, fatigue, headache, vomiting, stiffness in the neck, and pain in the limbs. One in 200 infections leads to irreversible paralysis (usually in the legs). Among those paralyzed, 5-10% die when their breathing muscles become immobilized. Polio mainly affects children under five years of age. Naturally occurring polio was eliminated in the U.S. in 1979 and in the Western Hemisphere by 1991; however, worldwide efforts are continuing towards eradication of this contagious and devastating disease.

Medical ethics: an interview with Anita Silvers

Medical ethics assists healthcare professionals to make decisions respectful of persons who happen to be their patients.

13 Aug 2012

Melinda Gates dedicates Tällberg Foundation prize money to Rotary International

"The global effort to eradicate polio received a SEK 1 million [about $150,000] boost today as Melinda Gates, co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, dedicated the monetary award she accepted from the Tällberg Foundation to Rotary International -- a humanitarian service organization that has made a polio-free world its top priority," according to a Gates Foundation press release.

8 Aug 2012

Science, Lancet articles examine efforts to eradicate polio

In a series of "News Focus" articles in Science, the magazine examines the global effort to eradicate polio. One article examines the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI) -- a partnership of the WHO, Rotary International, UNICEF, the CDC, and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation -- and recent reports on the program by an Independent Monitoring Board (IMB), "an oversight body" that provides feedback and guidance.

3 Aug 2012

Possible molecular link between circadian rhythm disturbances and increased inflammatory response

Scientists have known for some time that throwing off the body's circadian rhythm can negatively affect body chemistry. In fact, workers whose sleep-wake cycles are disrupted by night shifts are more susceptible to chronic inflammatory diseases such as diabetes, obesity and cancer.

2 Aug 2012

HIV would 'remain a threat' even if world achieved 'AIDS-free generation' by any definition

Lawrence Altman, former senior medical correspondent for the New York Times, writes in an opinion analysis in the newspaper that while there was much discussion about "ending the AIDS epidemic" and an "AIDS-free generation" at the XIX International AIDS Conference (AIDS 2012) last week in Washington, D.C., "[o]ne obstacle is a failure to clearly define the epidemic or what it means to have an AIDS-free generation."

1 Aug 2012

CNN examines progress, challenges in global polio eradication efforts

"Health efforts are close to wiping out polio, but two significant challenges remain: money and the operational logistics of getting the vaccine to people who need it," CNN writes in an article examining "how far we've come with polio and what's left to be done."

30 Jul 2012

Viewpoints: 'No Cash, No Insurance, No Live'; Medicaid expansion is a good option; Eradicating polio

With all the talk about health care recently, I'm surprised that no one has challenged the crazy idea that hospitals should treat people who can't pay. This is a free market nation, dammit! The home of "No Shirt, No Shoes, No Dice" in store windows should have "No Cash, No Insurance, No Live" on our hospital doors.

26 Jul 2012

Community worker assisting with polio campaign in Pakistan shot, killed

In a statement on Saturday, the World Health Organization and UNICEF said "a local community worker who helped an anti-polio campaign in Pakistan has been shot and killed in Karachi -- days after two of its staff were injured in a shooting in the city," the Associated Press reports.

24 Jul 2012

Blog examines potential repercussions of CIA's fake vaccination campaign in Pakistan

In this post on her blog, "The Garrett Update," Laurie Garrett, senior fellow for global health at the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), examines the potential implications of a fake hepatitis vaccine campaign carried out by the CIA in Pakistan last year in an attempt to gather DNA from Osama bin Laden's family.

19 Jul 2012

Two polio campaign workers shot, wounded in Pakistan; WHO says no sign attack was deliberate

"Gunmen in Pakistan shot and wounded a staff member of the World Health Organization (WHO) and an expatriate consultant working for the United Nations health agency on Tuesday, the WHO said," Reuters reports.

19 Jul 2012

Scientists discover new way to convert cord blood cells into iNC

For more than 20 years, doctors have been using cells from blood that remains in the placenta and umbilical cord after childbirth to treat a variety of illnesses, from cancer and immune disorders to blood and metabolic diseases.

17 Jul 2012

Pakistan polio immunization campaign might not reach 240,000 children because of militant leaders' bans on vaccine

A national polio vaccination campaign set to begin this week in Pakistan might not reach 240,000 children in the northwest because of a Taliban ban on the inoculations, Agence France-Presse reports. Local militant leaders "have banned polio vaccinations in the northwestern tribal region of Waziristan to protest against U.S. drone attacks" and "have condemned the immunization campaign, which is slated to begin on Monday, as a cover for espionage," the news agency writes.

17 Jul 2012

Polio eradication: an interview with Dr. Kathleen O’Reilly

Polio is a disease caused by a virus and results in paralysis, usually in the legs, of those affected. The paralysis is irreversible. In some extreme cases the virus spreads to the nerve cells of the brain reducing breathing capacity and this rarer form can be fatal.

16 Jul 2012

Johns Hopkins doctoral program graduate explores ways to control infectious diseases

Her passport is stamped with exotic locations: Myanmar, Tibet, South Africa, Vietnam, and Cambodia, as well as Baltimore, MD. But, when Carrie Tudor, PhD, MPH, RN, looks at it, she sees global battlefields in the fight against infectious disease. Her weapons: immunizations, programs to curb tuberculosis and HIV transmission, and a drive to carry on a rich tradition of public health nursing research.

16 Jul 2012

College-age children also need immunizations, says UMDNJ professor

Most parents take their young children regularly for immunization shots that protect against polio, diphtheria, measles, mumps and other diseases. But many do not consider that their college-age children also need immunizations.

14 Jul 2012

MedStar NRH, Georgetown University create new Center for Brain Plasticity and Recovery

Georgetown University and MedStar National Rehabilitation Network announced today a new research and patient care partnership that extends the boundaries of neuroscience. The new Center for Brain Plasticity and Recovery marks the launch of a rare research continuum spanning basic and translational science in brain recovery.

14 Jul 2012

New York Times examines how CIA's decision to use vaccination team affecting polio eradication efforts

The New York Times examines how the CIA's 2011 decision to use a vaccination team to collect DNA samples and information from residents of Osama bin Laden's compound damaged efforts to vaccinate children for polio in Pakistan.

12 Jul 2012

Fatal outcome from HFMD is rare, says LUHS pediatric infectious disease specialist

A mysterious disease that has killed nearly 60 children in Cambodia has been identified by the World Health Organization as enterovirus 71. This virus is one among a family of viruses that cause a variety of illnesses, including a common childhood illness called hand, foot and mouth disease, but Andrew Bonwit, MD, pediatric infectious disease specialist at Loyola University Health System, says a fatal outcome from such illness is rare.

11 Jul 2012

Poor vaccine uptake blamed for polio rise in Pakistan, Afghanistan

The number of cases of poliomyelitis per year in Pakistan and Afghanistan has more than doubled since 2006 despite improvements in available vaccine efficacy, show study findings in The Lancet.

10 Jul 2012

Polio elimination hindered by unvaccinated children in Pakistan and Afghanistan

Too few children have received sufficient doses of vaccine to wipe out polio in Pakistan and Afghanistan, two of only three countries in the world where endemic polio has yet to be eliminated, according to new research published Online First in The Lancet. The findings suggest that the newly introduced bivalent oral poliovirus vaccine (OPV) has the potential to eliminate polio in these countries if sufficient numbers of children could be reached by vaccination programmes.

4 Jul 2012