The nanny state is alive and well and living in Northern Europe. Parents in Belgium were recently handed five-month prison terms for refusing to vaccinate their children against polio. The pair of parents was also fined, according to media reports.

“It’s a pretty extraordinary case,” said Dr. Ross Upshur, director of the Joint Centre for Bioethics at the University of Toronto. “Is a prison sentence disproportionate?”

The sentences were delayed to give them a chance to vaccinate their children. But if that deadline also passes without the children receiving the innoculations, the parents could be put in a box.

Belgian officials would not talk on the record about the cases, as to why the parents refused the vaccine.

Doctors say the polio vaccine is the only one required by Belgian law. Exceptions are granted only if parents can prove their children might have a bad physical reaction to the vaccine.

“Polio is a very serious disease and has caused great suffering in the past,” said Dr. Victor Lusayu, head of Belgium’s international vaccine center. “The discovery of the vaccine has eliminated polio from Europe and it is simply the law in Belgium that you have to be vaccinated. … At the end of the day, the law must be respected.”

The highly infectious disease is spread through water and mainly strikes children under five, and initial symptoms include fever, headaches, vomiting, stiffness in the neck and fatigue. The polio virus invades the body’s nervous system and can lead to irreversible paralysis within hours. In extreme cases, patients can die when their breathing muscles are immobilized.

Some “ethicists” back the hard-line Belgian stance.

“Nobody has the right to unfettered liberty, and people do not have a right to endanger their kids,” said John Harris, a professor of bioethics at the University of Manchester. “The parents in this case do not have any rights they can appeal to. They have obligations they are not fulfilling.”

Polio is a serious public health concern, and is re-emerging after decades of decline. But this public policy solution by the Belgian government is simply not sane. How about negotiating with the parents, rather than sending them to the slammer? There are many legitimate reasons for not wanting to have one’s child receive a shot, including religious objections by Christian Scientists. These human rights considerations need to be taken into account by the nannies in Brussels. Many kids also have adverse reactions to shots, something that parents, but not the government, appear to take into consideration.

– by Gene J. Koprowski, editorial director

Children with polio. Why add to their troubles by sending their parents to prison?

Posted: March 17th, 2008 under Feature Stories, Polio.
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Two states in India are reporting an unprecedented outbreak of a unique strain of polio, P3.

Many folks may not distinguish between the different types of polio but to health authorities both are vital and eradicating both strains is critical in India’s fight against this crippling disease.

Experts note the following:

* Bihar recorded 424 cases of poliovirus 3 in 2007.
* Uttar Pradesh recorded 314 cases of poliovirus 3 in 2007.

Unlike polio 1, or P1, the more virulent strain of polio, p3 spreads slowly and doesn’t cause severe paralysis.

Doctors say a few extra rounds of P3 vaccination can control the strain — but that other infection protection measures are also needed. From almost 2000 cases in 1998 to a little over 800 cases in 2007, India’s polio journey has largely been a success story and despite the resurgence of the P3 virus authorities are optimistic a few extra rounds of P3 vaccinations will control the strain.

”We’ll adjust our strategy in such a way that it addresses both P1 & P3 using the alternate monovalent P1 and monovalent P3,” said Bijaya Rajbhandari, State Representative, UNICEF, Patna.

– The Editors

A man suffering from polio. Source: Centers for Disease Control.

Posted: February 6th, 2008 under Polio.
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The 19-year-old campaign to eradicate polio is celebrating recent progress and an unexpected infusion of cash, but experts are coming to realize they will not be able to end the laborious efforts to control the virus any time soon, The Washington Post is reporting. Ridding the world of polio will be a far messier business than the 1977 eradication of smallpox, which remains a unique achievement in medicine. That is because it is now clear the virus that causes polio could re-emerge in the coming years, and possibly even decades, after the last case is found. The reason involves peculiarities of poliovirus and the oral Sabin vaccine being used to eradicate the disease.

See,

http://www.courant.com/news/nationworld/hc-polio1226.artdec26,0,4361345,print.story

From what we understand, the current vaccine contains a weaker strain of the poliovirus which stimulates immunity against the wild, naturally occurring virus.  Sometimes, though, the vaccine virus can mutate to a more dangerous form, spread from human to human and cause a paralytic infection. Recognized during the past decade, the new form of polio has caused outbreaks in 10 countries since 2000. This year, 7% of all polio cases worldwide were caused by mutant, vaccine-derived virus.

The only way to prevent this from happening is to keep the world’s infants and toddlers fully immunized — in other words, to keep up the campaign to stop polio — one that that has already persisted seven years longer than was initially anticipated. – The Editors
 

 

                                                                                                                                                                       The polio virus. Photo courtesy of UNICEF.

Posted: December 26th, 2007 under Diseases, News, Polio.
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