The claim of eradicated polio...

[Healthy Skeptic]

My DH is in a club that feels they have helped to eradicate polio in many countries.  They give the oral polio vax and then dye their pinkie blue or purple (can't remember which) permanently so they don't have to get the vax again.  Their claim is so strong I think DH is starting to wonder if some of the non-vax stuff is just people making it up.  He has never disagreed with me before, but he sees the stats at his club and it's very convincing.

My DH is very smart and wise.  I think the world of him and trust his thoughts and questioning.  I think it is fine to question things, but since he has no real passion for this like I do I will be the one to seek out an answer.  I don't want to set out to convince him of anything.  I just want to know for myself and I will share my thoughts with him.  He has always trusted me and my research, I sure don't want anything to disrupt that.  Is there any validity to this eradication via vax or is it better living conditions and cleaner water?  If so what and where can I find information that is scientifically valid. 

I honestly hate to bother you mamas knowing you are so busy, but being out of the research realm for 3-5 years has me a tad lost.  So any help would be more appreciated then you know.

Audy

FYI - I am presently reading these 2 articles. http://voices.yahoo.com/why-whos-news-release-polio-nigeria-nonsense-597609.html?cat=70 and http://www.immunize.org/vis/opv-00.pdf

[shiningpearl]

there was just a thread on the main forum talking about how even though India had no Wild Polio in 2011, they had just as many vaccine induced or case of paralyzed children  http://www.mothering.com/community/t/1350135/paralysis-cases-continue-to-rise-experts-speak-out-against-who-and-gates/0_50

[Healthy Skeptic]

I will check that out thanks.

[Asiago]

I just came across this one:

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/updates/health/july-dec09/polio_08-24.html

[Climbing Rose]

I don't know if this is very useful, because it's just anecdotal, but DH and I were just talking about polio.

He told me he just found out his boss had it as a child. 

I said that I thought people didn't get that anymore here, unless it was after the shot.

DH said, "He *did* have the shot- That's how he got it."

That confirmed a lot of things I have read about, and made it real.

[shiningpearl]

the one thing that gets me when I talk to people who knew someone with polio, it that they were in the same neighborhood, block, house, school, pool with that child.  But you don't hear them talk about when they had polio do you.  They will say they never had it, but I bet money that if someone where to have tested them, they would have shown exposure/immunity to it. If that many people where being treated for Polio, how many had it and weren't treated.  from wikipeida http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poliomyelitis

Quote:

Although approximately 90% of polio infections cause no symptoms at all, affected individuals can exhibit a range of symptoms if the virus enters theblood stream.^[3] In about 1% of cases, the virus enters the central nervous system, preferentially infecting and destroying motor neurons, leading tomuscle weakness and acute flaccid paralysis. Different types of paralysis may occur, depending on the nerves involved. Spinal polio is the most common form, characterized by asymmetric paralysis that most often involves the legs. Bulbar polio leads to weakness of muscles innervated bycranial nerves. Bulbospinal polio is a combination of bulbar and spinal paralysis.^[

So 90% of polio has NO symptoms, and only 1% cause paralysis.  It's funny how the 90% are so scared of the disease that they had no idea they had

[nukuspot]

I am still stuck on the idea of this "club".  What?  Are they doctors?  Do they walk around countries with oral polio and hair dye?  Whose hair do they dye? I still can't wrap my head around what you are saying here.  Can you elaborate?

[Mirzam]

Originally Posted by nukuspot 

I am still stuck on the idea of this "club".  What?  Are they doctors?  Do they walk around countries with oral polio and hair dye?  Whose hair do they dye? I still can't wrap my head around what you are saying here.  Can you elaborate?

 Maybe it is the Rotary Club?

After 25 years of hard work, Rotary and its partners are on the brink of eradicating this tenacious disease, but a strong push is needed now to root it out once and for all. It is a window of opportunity of historic proportions.

[nukuspot]

I've seen Rotary club signs on parades and stuff.  Never knew what they do.  So what, they go to 3rd world countries with doses of OPV?  How do they do that unless they are medical professionals?  And why?  And what's with the hair dye?  And...The OP seems like she is really anti-vaccine, how did she meet and marry her DH with that huge thing not in common?

So sorry about all the questions, this is so strange and foreign to me.

[nukuspot]

So when I see people walking around with pink or blue hair do I assume they just had a dose of OPV and stay Far, Far away?

[slmommy]

Nuku, I don't know much about it but Rotary does a lot of other things too, I know they run study abroad/student exchange programs. I think OP said that pinkies get dyed... ?

[BeckyBird]

Hey Audy!

Please look at these pages:

http://www.vaclib.org/basic/polio.htm

http://harpub.co.cc/

There are interesting connections between pesticide use and polio.  Then, more recently, connections between the oral polio vaccine and polio cases.

[nukuspot]

Super oops I thought she said they dye their hair pink and blue . So how do they permanently dye a pinkie? Tattooing? Sorry I know I'm totally off topic but I can't help wondering.

[katelove]

Originally Posted by nukuspot 

I've seen Rotary club signs on parades and stuff.  Never knew what they do.  So what, they go to 3rd world countries with doses of OPV?  How do they do that unless they are medical professionals?  And why?  And what's with the hair dye?  And...The OP seems like she is really anti-vaccine, how did she meet and marry her DH with that huge thing not in common?

So sorry about all the questions, this is so strange and foreign to me.

In Australia at least Rotarians don't actually travel overseas and run the programs. They fundraise and donate the money to various programs. Over here they fund public parks, youth activities and sometimes pay for and arrange for children from disadvantaged countries to come to Australia for medical treatment - corrective surgery after severe burns or for disfiguring tumors or injuries etc.

They're usually local business people or active retirees around here.

[Healthy Skeptic]

Originally Posted by nukuspot 

I am still stuck on the idea of this "club".  What?  Are they doctors?  Do they walk around countries with oral polio and hair dye?  Whose hair do they dye? I still can't wrap my head around what you are saying here.  Can you elaborate?

Oh, I am sorry.  Didn't mean to confuse anyone.  Here is a link for you. http://www.rotary.org/en/serviceandfellowship/polio/pages/ridefault.aspx

Cute picture by the way.

[Healthy Skeptic]

Originally Posted by nukuspot 

So when I see people walking around with pink or blue hair do I assume they just had a dose of OPV and stay Far, Far away?

I am sorry again.  In the OP I stated they dye the pinky not the hair.  lol

[Healthy Skeptic]

Originally Posted by nukuspot 

Super oops I thought she said they dye their hair pink and blue . So how do they permanently dye a pinkie? Tattooing? Sorry I know I'm totally off topic but I can't help wondering.

I apologize, I guess my info was wrong.  It is not permenant.

...each time a Rotary volunteer administers a polio vaccine,

a child’s pinkie is colored purple with the topical solution Gentian Violet -

temporarily marking him to prevent double dosage on National Immunization

Days...

[Healthy Skeptic]

Originally Posted by Asiago 

I just came across this one:

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/updates/health/july-dec09/polio_08-24.html

Thank you Thank you Thank you.  Very interesting.

[BeckyBird]

I found this interesting....

"The oral vaccine also has other advantages; it is cheap and can be administered by anyone. While the live virus vaccine means that the vaccinated patient can pass it to those around them, in most cases that can also be an added benefit, building immunity in those who have not received the vaccine, through a process called passive immunization."

Just say it....the vaccine sheds.

[Lookingup]

I have found the sugar link very interesting.  (Following from Neil Z Miller's book)

Nutritional deficiencies: A poor diet has also been shown to increase susceptibility to polio [25]. In 1948, during the height of the polio epidemics, Dr. Benjamin Sandler, a nutritional expert at the Oteen Veterans' Hospital, documented a relationship between polio and an excessive use of sugars and starches. He compiled records showing that countries with the highest per capita consumption of sugar, such as the United States, Britain, Australia, Canada, and Sweden (with over 100 pounds per person per year) had the greatest incidence of polio [26]. In contrast, polio was practically unheard of in China (with its sugar use of only 3 pounds per person per year) [26].
Dr. Sandler claimed that sugars and starches lower blood sugar levels causing hypoglycemia, and that phosphoric acid in soft drinks strips the nerves of proper nourishment. Such foods dehydrate the cells and leech calcium from the body. A serious calcium deficiency precedes polio [26-29]. Weakened nerve trunks are then more likely to malfunction and the victim loses the use of one or more limbs [26:146].
Researchers have always known that polio strikes with its greatest intensity during the hot summer months. Dr. Sandler observed that children consume greater amounts of ice cream, soft drinks, and artificially sweetened products in hot weather. In 1949, before the polio season began, he warned the residents of North Carolina, through the newspapers and radio, to decrease their consumption of these products. That summer, North Carolinians reduced their intake of sugar by 90 percentCand polio decreased by the same amount! The North Carolina State Health Department reported 2,498 cases of polio in 1948, and 229 cases in 1949 (data taken from North Carolina State Health Department figures) [26:146;29].
One manufacturer shipped one million less gallons of ice cream during the first week alone following the publication of Dr. Sandler's anti-polio diet. Soft drink sales were down as well. But the powerful Rockefeller Milk Trust, which sold frozen products to North Carolinians, combined forces with soft drink business leaders and convinced the people that Sandler's findings were a myth and the polio figures a fluke. By the summer of 1950 sales were back to previous levels and polio cases returned to "normal" [26:146;29].