Polio vaccine policy may change

POLIO QUICK FACTS

Polio, short for poliomyelitis, is a viral infection that may lead to paralysis and death. It is caused by three closely related viruses and is most commonly spread by direct contact with infected individuals. A vaccine developed by Dr. Jonas Salk in the 1950s has virtually eliminated polio from most of the world. The World Health Organization (WHO) has set a goal of global eradication of polio by the year 2000. In 1994, the WHO declared the Americas free of polio. The last case was reported in Peru in 1991. In 1995, 78 percent of children around the world had received at least three doses of polio vaccine in their first year, and half of the world's youngest children were immunized in mass vaccination campaigns. Source: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the World Health Organization

June 16, 1999
Web posted at: 10:08 a.m. EDT (1408 GMT)

(CNN) -- U.S. health officials are expected to vote Wednesday on a new polio vaccine policy. Although polio is considered eradicated in the United States, each year since 1979 a handful of children have contracted the crippling disease from the vaccine.

Those with vaccine-associated polio contract it from the oral (live virus) vaccine.

In 1997, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommended changes in the polio vaccine schedule in order to lower children's risk of contracting the disease.

Under the new guidelines, children are to be given two killed-virus injections, followed by two live-virus oral vaccines. But these changes are not mandatory, and families with children who suffered vaccine-associated polio say the changes haven't gone far enough.

"It's well known that the oral polio vaccine very rarely causes paralytic polio. It's not a common event, fortunately it only occurs five to 10 times per year in the United States," said Dr. Tom Chalk, Children's Medical Group of Atlanta.

Parents of children with vaccine-related polio have banded together to urge the CDC to recommend dropping the oral vaccine completely in favor of using the injectable vaccine.

Health officials have been reluctant to eliminate the oral vaccine because it does a better job fighting wild polio, but that threat may soon disappear. Experts expect to reach their goal of eradicating polio worldwide by the end of 2000.