Polio states before & after vaccine

[dislocator3972]

I heard/read/saw somewhere that Polio had a 90% decrease the year before the vaccination was introduced. Does anybody know where I can find a copy of this graph?

I mentioned it on FB and now pro-vaxers are clammoring for my evidence, but I can't remember where I found it. Do you guys have any help for me?

[Lisa1970]

I recently saw something about it on Measles where the deaths from measles had basically gone non-existant (except in people who were already dying) in developed countries and the states of deaths from 3rd world countries were made up because those places did not have the medical care in place or structures to take statistics.

[ema-adama]

You are not going to find a graph showing a 90% reduction in polio prior to the introduction of the vaccine.

The problem with the polio graph in the 1950's in the USA is that polio diagnosis was reclassified at around the same time the vaccine was introduced. This reclassification cut the numbers drastically, making it impossible to rely on diagnosed cases for accurate data on the incidence of polio pre and post vaccine.

[Fyrestorm]

Here is a pretty comprehensive article on it:

http://insidevaccines.com/wordpress/?s=polio

Thus, simply by changes in diagnostic criteria, the number of paralytic cases was predetermined to decrease in 1955-1957, whether or not any vaccine was used. At the same time, the number of nonparalytic cases was bound to increase because any case of poliomyelitis-like disease which could not be classified as paralytic poliomyelitis according to the new criteria was classified as nonparalytic poliomyelitis. Many of these cases, although reported as such, were not non-paralytic poliomyelitis. [3, p. 88](emphasis added)

[Turquesa]

Originally Posted by ema-adama

You are not going to find a graph showing a 90% reduction in polio prior to the introduction of the vaccine.

The problem with the polio graph in the 1950's in the USA is that polio diagnosis was reclassified at around the same time the vaccine was introduced. This reclassification cut the numbers drastically, making it impossible to rely on diagnosed cases for accurate data on the incidence of polio pre and post vaccine.

Do you know how they reclassified it? Just curious. Because the disease is so often asymptomatic, polio cases can be hard to quantify either way.

[Jugs]

Originally Posted by Turquesa

Do you know how they reclassified it? Just curious. Because the disease is so often asymptomatic, polio cases can be hard to quantify either way.

Prior to autumn 1955, a polio diagnosis would be made if the patient exhibited paralytic symptoms during 2 examinations at least 24 hours apart, with no laboratory confirmation required. After the case definition change (autumn 1955), a polio diagnosis would be made only after laboratory confirmation of infection, and if the patient exhibited residual paralysis for 10-20 days after onset of illness, and then again at 50-70 days after onset of illness.

Coincidentally (of course), August 1955 was also when the Salk IPV was re-introduced; it was originally introduced in April 1955, but was temporarily withdrawn after the "Cutter Laboratory Incident". The Sabin OPV was first available in 1961.

For pre-vaccine stats, this is the best I have been able to find (see page 875)
http://www.census.gov/prod/99pubs/99statab/sec31.pdf