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http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20011004/hl/polio_2.html
Thursday October 4 5:21 PM ET
CDC: Mutant Polio Vaccine Caused Outbreak
By Paul Simao
ATLANTA (Reuters) - A mutant strain of the oral polio
vaccine is likely responsible for a rare but deadly outbreak of the crippling
disease in the Dominican Republic and Haiti, US health officials said on
Thursday.
The outbreak, the first in the Western Hemisphere since
1991, has killed two children and left 19 others paralyzed on the Caribbean
island of Hispaniola since July 2000, the US Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention (news - web sites) (CDC) said.
A further 21 possible cases are being investigated on the
island, which comprises the Dominican Republic and Haiti.
The CDC said there were strong signs that the outbreak had
been caused by a strain of the oral polio vaccine that had mutated and
circulated for about 2 years among people insufficiently vaccinated against the
virus.
“What we observed is that the areas where this virus was
found were areas that had low vaccination coverage, at least among the youngest
groups of the population,” said Dr. Patrick Zuber, an epidemiologist in the CDC’s
polio eradication branch.
All those who acquired polio in the recent outbreak on the
island were 14 years old or younger.
Zuber said the outbreak likely occurred through oral-fecal
transmission. Those who receive the
oral polio vaccine normally reproduce the virus in their digestive tracts and
then shed it in their feces.
The United States does not use the oral polio vaccine,
favoring instead an intravenous version of the vaccine.
Polio which once afflicted millions of children, attacks
the central nervous system, often causing paralysis, muscular atrophy and
deformity. Five to 10% of those infected die when their breathing muscles
become paralyzed.
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