OPV paralyses 3 lakh + children in two decades


To
The Editor,
The Telegraph
India.
 
cc: Sri G S Mudur
      Correspondent.
 
Dear Sir,
 
That OPV can cause Acute Flaccid Paralysis (AFP) has been a constant refrain by conscientious doctors, even reported in your own paper. Now that their fears have come true an effort is being made to twist the case by stating that adequate doses have not been given.
 
If five doses are adequate then why does the same report state that AFP has occurred after 7 to 10 doses? It is well known that in many cases upto 25 doses have been administered by the time the children reached the age of two. The OPV has also caused AFP in polio free States, ostensibly due to the use of live polio virus.
 
OPV has been pulled out in many countries very early on because cases of AFP were observed after the vaccine was administered. However, for strange reasons, the OPV was continued in India despite reports of adverse reactions pouring in. Was it because the vaccine manufacturers wanted to dispose off their stocks? Most probably yes.  International organisations have connived with vaccine manufacturers to inflict this tragedy on third world countries.
 
Now that the lid has been blown, data on the adverse reactions compiled over the years have mysteriously disappeared. Much more will happen. All the three lakh cases will be attributed to other causes as is already being observed. Had this incident happened in any other country heads would have rolled, but India is different.
 
It is high time vaccines dangers are seriously discussed. We already have over 40 lakh autistic children in India. The number is growing at over 120% per year. It is being attributed to a genetic cause, though those making such claims know fully well that genetic epidemics are an impossibility. Genetic disorders show themselves in the womb and not after being vaccinated. One cannot counter the cries of parents that their children have regressed after vaccines with "scientific data". This is inhuman.
 
It is strange that we repeatedly pump in a toxic sludge composed of live and genetically modified viruses, heavy metals, neurotoxins, carcinogens,immunosuppressants, antibiotics, animal products and contaminated serum into infants in the name of "immunisation" and then spend money on researching, identifying and managing the diseases they cause. Such farcical activities should immediately be stopped.
 
If the voices of doctors, scientists and activists had been heard then this scenario would never have occurred. The government should now admit its responsibility and compensate the victims. It should also reign in its mass vaccination campaigns and give proper attention to the real factors that cause disease. It is more important to have healthy children than to achieve economic targets by catering to the drugs and disease management industry that goes by the name of "health care".
 
Yours faithfully,
Jagannath Chatterjee
Health Reform/Anti GM Activist.
 
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’80s paralysis spurt traced to polio slip
New Delhi, Sept. 25: Tens of thousands of children across India were paralysed by polio during the 1980s because health policy makers refused to acknowledge the low efficacy of the oral polio vaccine (OPV) in India, a leading polio expert said.
The low efficacy, which leaves some children unprotected even after multiple doses of OPV, has haunted India’s protracted war on polio and is also evident in western Uttar Pradesh this year where many vaccinated children have developed polio.
 
“In western UP, the speed of immunisation has not overtaken the speed of the wild polio virus,” said T. Jacob John, former head of virology at the Christian Medical College, Vellore, who is a member of India’s expert group on polio eradication.
 
Health ministry and polio surveillance officials have attributed the outbreak in Uttar Pradesh this year to the failure of health workers to immunise many children in the region during the second half of 2005.
 
But they agreed that “rapid and repetitive vaccination with OPV is needed to fight the force of transmission of the wild polio virus”, which is also aided by factors such as high birth rate and poor sanitation.
 
The low efficacy feature surfaced over 20 years ago when studies in India showed that three doses recommended by the World Health Organisation were not enough to protect all vaccinated children, John said. The proportion of polio cases among children who had received three doses rose steadily through the 1980s.
 
“Japan wiped out polio with two OPV doses, the US did it with three doses, and India’s southern states used six to eight doses. But in western UP, some children with over 10 doses have still got polio,” John said.
 
The geographic variation in OPV efficacy is observed even when the quality and potency of the vaccine is excellent.
 
Following those studies, the Indian Academy of Pediatrics had recommended five doses of OPV. “Five doses would not have eradicated polio, but they would have protected more children than three doses,” a senior pediatrician in a government medical college told The Telegraph.
 
Yet, the government continued with three doses until 1995. John has estimated that this would have resulted in polio paralysis in tens of thousands of vaccinated children whose parents and doctors had been told that three doses were sufficient. The number could even be as high as 300,000.