Poliomyelitis

New polio vaccine that targets mutated virus set for approval - Telegraph.co.uk New polio vaccine that targets mutated virus set for approval - Telegraph.co.uk Posted: 13 Nov 2020 12:00 AM PST A new polio vaccine is set to receive emergency authorisation to try to halt outbreaks of the crippling disease caused by mutated virus from existing immunisation drops. The rapid rise of so-called vaccine-derived polio outbreaks has become an alarming problem for the decades-long campaign to eradicate the disease. With the global campaign already struggling to preserve momentum in the virus's last haunts , the latest figures show mutant strains now paralyse more children than the original wild types. Figures from October showed almost three times as many vaccine derived cases so far in 2020 as wild poliovirus cases.  Afghanistan and Pakistan, the last haunts of the natural form, have between them seen 133 cases of wild virus and 216 cas...

Polio vaccine campaign launches in Sudan - Sudan - ReliefWeb Polio vaccine campaign launches in Sudan - Sudan - ReliefWeb Posted: 30 Nov 2020 12:33 AM PST This morning, the first round of a national polio vaccination campaign was launched by the Sudanese Ministry of Health in Khartoum. There are 46 circulating vaccine-derived poliovirus type 2 (cVDPV2) cases reported in Sudan in 2020 so far. The initial viruses were linked to the ongoing outbreak in Chad, followed by local transmission, according to the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI). Two new cases of polio were reported this week, one each in River Nile state and North Kordofan. Director of the Health Ministry's Immunisation Department, Abdallah Hasan, said that the campaign, entitled 'Towards a Polio-Free Homeland' targets 8,617,936 children in Sudan at a total cost of $24 million. He explained that the second round of the vaccination campaign will take place...

Remembering friend's recovery from polio in '50s [I Know a Story column] - Fly Magazine Remembering friend's recovery from polio in '50s [I Know a Story column] - Fly Magazine Posted: 29 Nov 2020 02:00 AM PST The inspiration for this story came from the pandemic we are facing today, as well as a story this column carried some time ago about the polio epidemic in Lancaster County in the early 1950s. The writer of that story said he had no personal experience with the illness. I have only second-hand experience. One of my best friends, Janet Miller, at age 10 or 11, spent weeks in Lancaster General Hospital with polio. I can still visualize her in her bed there. In a nearby room, in an iron lung, was the wife of Dr. J. William Frey, head of the Department of German at Franklin & Marshall College. I met Dr. Frey in Janet's room, for when he visited his wife, h...

A vaccine heist in 1959 set off a frantic search to recover the serum before it spoiled - The Washington Post A vaccine heist in 1959 set off a frantic search to recover the serum before it spoiled - The Washington Post Posted: 14 Nov 2020 12:00 AM PST "Don't worry. We know why we're here, and now show us where the monkey department is," a gunman said before locking Beland in a cage alongside the lab's test animals. Newly delivered to the facility was $50,000 worth of polio vaccine set to be distributed across the province of Quebec, including Montreal, where more than 500 polio cases were under treatment. The polio vaccine was just as precious then as a coronavirus vaccine will be when it is approved for use in the coming months. In Montreal, the criminals loaded 25 crates of vaccine into the night watchman's car and another vehicle before making their getaway. Beland spent an hour struggling...