Questioning Vaccines: Polio Ravivaar

This is in continuation of a new series of posts I hope to do on this blog.

*DISCLAIMER: I have no medical training, not even a sniff of one, unless one counts two months of aborted Aakash Institute classes (hee). So feel free to direct me to other sources I can use to expand my knowledge on the topic in question. Just don't tell me that since I'm not in the medical field, I won't understand any of this.That only motivates me to dig more :) 

Today's Hindu (Thursday, 24 January, 2013) ran a short article about how a baby named Rukhsar in (where else? The state that has been in the news a lot lately, West Bengal) has not been vaccinated orally against (wild) Polio because her Grandmother refuses to allow it. The Grandmum saw her son become 'violently sick' after being given the Polio Vaccine, and referred to a baby 'across the canal' who died a day after being vaccinated, and refuses to chance the same fate for her two grandchildren. I'm pasting it below (link to article).

                      This Rukhsar has still not been vaccinated for polio

                                                                           -Ananya Dutta

Two years ago, this village in Howrah district made headlines when one-and-a-half-year-old Rukhsar Khatoon contracted polio. A year later Rukhsar shot to even greater fame when it was revealed that she was the last reported case of wild polio in the country for an entire year – a milestone that took India off the World Health Organisation’s list of polio-endemic countries. 

Rukhsar has gone on to become the face of the campaign to eradicate polio in Sahapara village if not the whole country, but another two-year-old Rukhsar, who lives less than 500 metres away, has never been given the oral polio vaccine; her grandmother will not allow it. 

“I have seen with my own eyes that my son became violently sick when he was given the polio vaccine. How can allow any other children in my family to suffer,” asked Rukhiya Bibi on Wednesday. 

Before polio struck the locality, there were about 30 families who refused the vaccination. As news of Rukhsar’s affliction spread in Sahapara village, many of those who had been resisting all these years, changed their minds, said Sabana Khatoon, a United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) volunteer who works in the polio eradication programme in Sahapara village. 

The family of Rukhiya Bibi is among the two that still hold out in the area where Sabana Khatoon works while there are eight families in all in Sahapara village who will not allow their children to be vaccinated. 

Rukhiya Bibi is convinced that if her grandchildren are administered the vaccine, they are sure to come to harm. Describing vividly the images of her son Surpan, who had become sick when he was given the vaccine at least five years ago, she emphatically rules out the same fate for her grandchildren – two-year-old Rukhsar and ten-month-old Noorbina. 

“Surpan was gripped with fever. His limbs, his abdomen, his whole body had swollen up. I will not allow my granddaughter to suffer that,” she said, dismissing all arguments about allergic reactions or any other cause for his ailment. 

Asked about the risk that her granddaughters may contract polio, Rukhiya Bibi recounted: “There was that child, who lived in the house across the canal. He died a day after he was given the vaccine. Can I take that risk?”

The author of the article asks whether what she saw was but a violent reaction to the vaccine (and hence 'normal'), but the old lady refuses to accept this as reason enough to acquiese. Is her response totally irrational and superstititious? Medically speaking (and I wouldn't know), perhaps. But should we dismiss it? Perhaps not. I found it useful to read a short paper on whether or not it is time for India to discontinue its Polio programme (in it's current form, and not immunisation against wild Polio per se) on Dr. Puliyel's website. I'm pasting below the abstract:


Title of Paper:  
Polio programme: let us declare victory and move on
                                                      
Authors:
Neetu Vashisht, Jacob Puliyel 

Abstract:
 It was hoped that following polio eradication, immunisation could be stopped. However the synthesis of polio virus in 2002, made eradication impossible. It is argued that getting poor countries to expend their scarce resources on an impossible dream over the last 10 years was unethical.
 
Furthermore, while India has been polio-free for a year, there has been a huge increase in non-polio acute flaccid paralysis (NPAFP). In 2011, there were an extra 47,500 new cases of NPAFP. Clinically indistinguishable from polio paralysis but twice as deadly, the incidence of NPAFP was directly proportional to doses of oral polio received. Though this data was collected within the polio surveillance system, it was not investigated. The principle of primum-non-nocere was violated.
 
The authors suggest that the huge bill of US$ 8 billion spent on the programme, is a small sum to pay if the world learns to be wary of such vertical programmes in the future.

Link to paper:
http://jacob.puliyel.com/download.php?id=251