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 As
world seeks to eradicate polio, Laos suffers vaccine-linked case
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[October 13, 2015]
GENEVA/LONDON (Reuters) - Laos has
suffered a case of vaccine-derived polio, the World Health Organization
said on Monday, in a new setback to a global plan to eradicate the
crippling disease after the virus resurfaced in Ukraine and Mali.
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 The WHO said an 8-year-old boy died of the disease on Sept. 11, and
genetic sequencing suggested the virus strain has been circulating
in the area of Bolikhamxay province, which has low immunization
rates, for more than two years.
There is no cure for polio, which attacks the nervous system and can
cause irreversible paralysis within hours of infection. But a global
vaccination campaign has all but beaten the wild polio virus, with
only Pakistan and Afghanistan reporting cases of wild polio virus
infection this year.
Specialists have warned that vaccine-derived cases - such as this
one in Laos and previous ones in Ukraine and Mali - could hamper
progress towards global eradication.
The WHO stressed that "ending polio for good requires eliminating
both wild and vaccine-derived polio".
It added, however, that because of relatively limited travel to and
from this area, and because of extra immunization campaigns planned
in response, the risk of international spread of this polio strain
from Laos is low.
Laos has been free of the wild polio virus since 1993, but poor
immunization rates mean people are at risk of infection with strains
of the virus that can mutate in sewage after being excreted by
immunized children.
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The risk of vaccine-derived polio cases can be avoided by switching
from using live oral polio vaccines (OPV) - which are highly
effective, cheap, easy to deliver but contain live virus, - to
"inactivated" vaccines (IPV), which are not effective for fighting
endemic disease but contain no live virus.
The WHO said the use of OPV is being scaled down in a phased manner
as countries eliminate circulating wild polio virus strains.
(Reporting by Tom Miles in Geneva and Kate Kelland in London)
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