If Polio Is Only a Plane Ride Away . . . - Page 3

[Deborah]

link didn't work...

It looks like it might be blocked or something.

[caned & able]

It is.

[Turquesa]

Originally Posted by bbrandonsmom

If a google search is done on "Is polio really a plane ride away", some interesting info comes up.

Um, yea. This thread. And nothing else.

Here are the search terms that I entered instead: "polio," "plane ride away."

And you're right. It is interesting.

[Deborah]

Odd, my search turned up over 22,000 results on the same terms.

I didn't browse through all 22,000, but the first two pages were all about how easy it would be for polio to land in the U.S. again.

Which makes the newspaper stories I cited earlier even more puzzling.

Mumps, which isn't terribly easy to spread...we get outbreaks.

Measles, which is pretty easy to spread...we get outbreaks.

Polio, who knows? But all the outbreaks seem to be confined to developing countries right now. And have been for many years, in spite of the fact that the IPV vaccine which we currently use does not prevent carriage of the illness and the fact that vaccine coverage in the U.S. has had some ups and downs. Curious.

[caned & able]

That all depends on the working definition of "outbreak".

[an_domhan]

Originally Posted by heathergirl67

You mean, besides the explaination that the vaccine was effective at *basically* eradicating it?

It wasn't the vaccine that eradicated it, it was the change in diagnostic criteria. We didn't even bother to isolate poliovirus prevaccine...

[an_domhan]

Originally Posted by an_domhan

It wasn't the vaccine that eradicated it, it was the change in diagnostic criteria. We didn't even bother to isolate poliovirus prevaccine...

Inside Vaccines did a really good write-up of the numbers manipulation and confusion surrounding AFP.