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.

Children's Hospital project to investigate effectiveness of BET antagonists against HIV

Terri Finkel, M.D., Ph.D., chief of Rheumatology at Children's Hospital and Professor of Pediatrics at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, will pursue an innovative global health research project, titled "Use of a BET Antagonist to Control and Cure HIV Infection."

8 Nov 2011

Reform necessary to overcome challenges to polio eradication efforts in Pakistan

In this Huffington Post opinion piece, Sania Nishtar, founder of Heartfile and the recently launched Sania Nishtar Health Fund, writes that "after 23 years of commencing the World Health Organization-led Global Polio Eradication Initiative, billions of dollars in investment, mobilization of 20 million health workers and a population wide intervention in 125 countries, vaccinating more than two billion children, there are only four countries in the world which continue to harbor the disease," and Pakistan is "a living threat to the global goal of eradicating a disease for the second time from the face of this planet."

8 Nov 2011

St. Michael's project to develop vaccine that would eliminate latent HIV reservoirs

Dr. Mario Ostrowski, an infectious disease consultant, will pursue an innovative global health research project, titled A Human Endogenous Retrovirus Vaccine to Eliminate Latent HIV Reservoirs.

8 Nov 2011

Live virus used in polio vaccine can evolve and infect, warns TAU researcher

Health professionals and researchers across the globe believe they are on the verge of eradicating polio, a devastating virus which can lead to paralysis and death. Despite successful eradication in most countries, there are still four countries where the virus is considered endemic -- and many more in which the virus still lurks.

8 Nov 2011

Georgia Tech/CDC project focuses on microneedle patches for polio vaccination

Mark Prausnitz, Regents' professor in Georgia Tech's School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, will pursue an innovative global health research project focused on using microneedle patches for the low-cost administration of polio vaccine through the skin in collaboration with researchers Steve Oberste and Mark Pallansch of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

8 Nov 2011

CRCHUM researcher receives Gates Foundation grant to eradicate HIV/AIDS

The Centre de recherche du Centre hospitalier de l'Universit- de Montr-al (CRCHUM) announced today that one of its researchers will receive funding of 100,000 US $ through Grand Challenges Explorations, an initiative created by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation that enables researchers worldwide to test unorthodox ideas that address persistent health and development challenges.

7 Nov 2011

Misconceptions affecting participation in HIV vaccine trials

On December 1st, World AIDS Day 2011 will be observed in many countries around the globe. The theme of this year's World AIDS Day is "Getting to Zero"—specifically, zero new HIV infections, zero discrimination and zero AIDS-related deaths.

5 Nov 2011

Angolan health officials on high alert after polio case confirmed

Health officials in the northern Angolan province of Uige are on high alert "after a 14-month-old boy tested positive for polio, which has made a resurgence in the country, UNICEF said Thursday," Agence France-Presse reports (11/3).

5 Nov 2011

Countries need vigilance, informed media coverage to achieve polio eradication

In this SciDev.Net editorial, T.V. Padma, regional coordinator for South Asia for the news service, recaps findings from the latest report of the Independent Monitoring Board of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI), released last week, and writes, "Polio control in developing countries has received massive international support and funding, including free supplies of vaccines. Yet transmission of the virus remains. Clearly, there are problems other than funds."

1 Nov 2011

GPEI must 'take seriously' recommendations in Independent Monitoring Board report

In this post in the "Health Affairs Blog," diplomacy and global health consultant Judith Kaufmann writes about the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI) Independent Monitoring Board quarterly report released last week, stating, "What is really new about this report ... is that it does not, as so many GPEI reports have in the past, point the finger at lack of funding, although there is an obvious concern about the funding gap. Rather, the report looks squarely at changes needed in the management of the global program itself."

1 Nov 2011

Commonwealth government leaders pledge millions of additional funds to fight polio

"Commonwealth government leaders meeting in Australia agreed Saturday to step up efforts to eradicate polio worldwide, despite the Afghanistan war setting back vaccination efforts there and in neighboring Pakistan," the Associated Press reports.

1 Nov 2011

Not too early to consider funding for, distribution of malaria vaccine

In this Huffington Post opinion piece, Orin Levine, executive director of the International Vaccine Access Center of Johns Hopkins University, notes some of the parallels between the development of RTS,S, the experimental malaria vaccine currently being tested in Africa, and the polio vaccine, but he says "there are also some particularly disappointing ways in which the polio and malaria efforts could differ."

29 Oct 2011

Number of polio cases in Pakistan exceeds total number reported in three other endemic countries, report says

According to a report published earlier this month in Virology Journal by a team at the bioinformatics laboratory of the Centre for Excellence in Molecular Biology (CEMB) in Lahore, Pakistan, that country is reporting more polio cases than Nigeria, India and Afghanistan -- the three other countries where the disease is endemic -- combined, SciDev.Net reports.

29 Oct 2011

DRC government, UNICEF campaign immunizes 14M children against polio

"Thousands of vaccination teams have traversed the vast Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) on foot, by motorbike, boat and car, in a campaign to immunize at least 14 million children against polio, the U.N. Children's Fund (UNICEF) said," IRIN reports.

28 Oct 2011

U.N. officials warn Yemen facing humanitarian, health disasters

High-level officials from UNICEF and the World Food Programme (WFP) this week warned that "routine immunization of children has dropped by 40 percent in some areas of Yemen, leading to outbreaks of polio and measles and reflecting a growing collapse of public services in a country that is on the brink of a humanitarian disaster," IRIN reports.

27 Oct 2011

UNICEF issues statement clarifying reports of polio cases in Madagascar

UNICEF released a statement on Tuesday correcting an October 21 report by its office in Madagascar "expressing concern over a resurgence of polio in Madagascar after a routine health survey identified vaccine-derived poliovirus (VDPV) in several healthy children." According to the statement, "there was no re-emergence of polio in Madagascar," and "the last wild poliovirus case in Madagascar was detected in 1997."

27 Oct 2011

Council on Foreign Relations releases interactive map tracking vaccine-preventable disease outbreaks

The Council on Foreign Relations' Global Health program "has released a user-friendly interactive map on the web that tracks 'Vaccine-Preventable Disease Outbreaks' around the world," Stewart Patrick, senior fellow and director of the council's Program on International Institutions and Global Governance, writes on the group's website.

27 Oct 2011

UNICEF warns of possible polio resurgence in Madagascar amid outbreak involving three children

"An outbreak of polio in three children from the south of Madagascar has raised concerns over a possible resurgence of this crippling disease," BBC News reports, adding, "UNICEF spokesman Daniel Timme says three cases of polio without symptoms have been identified ... during UNICEF's Mother and Child Health week following tests and urine samples".

24 Oct 2011

Opinion pieces address World Polio Day

Though the number of new polio cases has dropped by 99 percent over the past 20 years, World Polio Day is recognized "because we haven't done enough yet," Bill Gates, co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, writes in his blog, "The Gates Notes."

24 Oct 2011

Global Polio Eradication Initiative not on track to end transmission by 2012, report says

The latest quarterly report (.pdf) by an independent board that monitors the progress of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI), released in mid-October, warned that "unless the program addresses 'fundamental problems,' there is a 'substantial risk' that stopping polio transmission will not be achieved by end-2012," AlertNet reports.

24 Oct 2011

Polio News and Research

Further Reading

Children's Hospital project to investigate effectiveness of BET antagonists against HIV

Reform necessary to overcome challenges to polio eradication efforts in Pakistan

St. Michael's project to develop vaccine that would eliminate latent HIV reservoirs

Live virus used in polio vaccine can evolve and infect, warns TAU researcher

Georgia Tech/CDC project focuses on microneedle patches for polio vaccination

CRCHUM researcher receives Gates Foundation grant to eradicate HIV/AIDS

Misconceptions affecting participation in HIV vaccine trials

Angolan health officials on high alert after polio case confirmed

Countries need vigilance, informed media coverage to achieve polio eradication

GPEI must 'take seriously' recommendations in Independent Monitoring Board report

Commonwealth government leaders pledge millions of additional funds to fight polio

Not too early to consider funding for, distribution of malaria vaccine

Number of polio cases in Pakistan exceeds total number reported in three other endemic countries, report says

DRC government, UNICEF campaign immunizes 14M children against polio

U.N. officials warn Yemen facing humanitarian, health disasters

UNICEF issues statement clarifying reports of polio cases in Madagascar

Council on Foreign Relations releases interactive map tracking vaccine-preventable disease outbreaks

UNICEF warns of possible polio resurgence in Madagascar amid outbreak involving three children

Opinion pieces address World Polio Day

Global Polio Eradication Initiative not on track to end transmission by 2012, report says

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