Polio Particles - Issue 11

Mary Westbrook

Polio end-game

The World Health Organization announced in May that there were only 537 cases of polio worldwide in 2001, down 82% from 2000. The number of countries reporting polio had halved from 20 to 10. Polio was endemic in over 125 countries in 1988 when the campaign against polio began. A fascinating website www.endofpolio.org is packed with information on the challenges and strategies of the campaign. A few of the titbits that caught my eye were that there are 20 million people alive today who are disabled by polio, that the total cost of the eradication campaign through to 2005 will be less than 3 billion US (the amount Americans spend on coffee every two months) and that since 1999 nearly 2 billion doses of vaccine have been produced annually. A batch of vaccine takes 12-18 months to make. If it is to retain its potency, it needs to be kept cold, a problem in hot war-torn areas often lacking electricity. Until the mid 90s health workers had difficulty determining whether a vaccine was still potent. Then the invention of a vial monitor (specially treated circles on vaccine vials that turn dark as the temperature rises) eliminated the uncertainty resulting from power failures, hot days etc. Vaccine wastage was reduced by around 25%. On the website a photograph from Sierra Leone's first national polio immunization campaign in 1999 shows five men wearing 'Kick Polio out of Africa' T-shirts over military fatigues. Unexceptional unless you know who they are leaders of the country's five main warring factions. They were together for the first time.

One of the problems not mentioned on the website is that the statistics WHO quotes are often unreliable and sometimes wildly wrong according to an article by Sanjay Kumar in New Scientist (19/11/01). 'National level immunization figures are a myth' says virologist T. Jacob John, advisor to the Indian state of Kerala. He said 'year after year', India reported vaccinating hundreds of thousands more children against polio than the number of doses the country purchased. Often health workers have been threatened by punishment if they do not meet targets. WHO is revising its estimates after looking more critically at the data countries submit (e.g. 106% of children in a country could not have received their first dose of a vaccine in one year) and comparing data with findings from independent surveys.

Thief pursued by woman on electric scooter

Yorkshire scooter user 50 year old Christine Reilly who has asthma and emphysema had just collected her pension from the local post office when her handbag was snatched. Christine told reporter Paul Stokes that she just saw red when he grabbed the bag and ran off. I couldn't believe his cheek. She set off at full throttle, caught up with him and demanded the bag back. The thief handed it back after removing Christine's purse. Christine caught up with the thief again after five minutes and grabbed his jacket hurting her finger. She had to abandon the chase and seek medical treatment. However the thief's conscience was pricked by her courage. He sent back the purse and gave himself up to the police. He was jailed for nine months. I was determined he wasn't going to get away with it, said Christine.

Last European ever to contract polio?

In November 2001 WHO declared polio to have been eradicated in Europe, after the continent achieved the goal of three years without an indigenous case of the disease. Polio did enter Bulgaria and Georgia from India during this period but the virus was quickly eliminated. Europe is the third region of the world to be certified polio-free; the Americas were in 1994 and the western Pacific in 2000. The last European case was two-year-old Melik Minas who lived in south-east Turkey. He was never vaccinated and contracted polio in 1998 (Guardian 27/6/02).

Book about the puzzles and paradoxes of polio

In June, Dr Richard Bruno's book, The Polio Paradox: Uncovering the hidden history of polio to understand and treat 'post-polio syndrome' and chronic fatigue was published. It is full of fascinating little-known details about the history of polio, much useful information about relieving post-polio symptoms and hunches e.g. as to how polio and chronic fatigue syndrome may be related and why polio survivors seem less likely to be diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease. The many paradoxes or seeming contradictions of the polio experience are highlighted through the book e.g. The extreme exercises and therapies that helped polio survivors to appear 'normal' set the stage for PPS and are the opposite of what you need to do to manage PPS today. In the 1980s, doctors were ignoring and rejecting the same polio survivors whose plight had riveted the attention of the world's medical community and spurred it to action just thirty years before. Bruno says that to take the leap of faith to cope with PPS you should read the words POLIO SURVIVOR again and again taking in the breadth and depth of their meaning. If you can remember all you have survived and appreciate how you have thrived in spite of polio, there can be no question that you have the ability to make the physical and emotional changes necessary to survive and thrive with PPS. The book is available from Amazon.com for $US18.17 plus handling.

Polio survivors' falls

Falls have been shown to be more frequent among polio survivors than their able-bodied counterparts. Silver and Aiello recently reported that 64% of survivors they researched had fallen within the last year and that 61% of their falls required medical attention while 35% caused factures. Age was not related to likelihood of falling but a tendency to trip was (published in the Archives of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, 2002). An Australian study of risk of falls among polio survivors by Lord, Allen, Williams and Gandevia appeared in the same journal this year. They found that survivors who fall more frequently have weaker lower limbs and greater postural sway. The latter was measured while subjects stood on a foam rubber surface. The authors concluded that the association between muscle weakness and falls is mediated to a large extent by decreased stability. And as any survivor with a history of falls knows once you start to fall you usually lack the muscle power to do anything to halt your fall.

Aussie polio survivor created modern swimsuit for women

Swimming champion Annette Kellerman was born in Sydney in 1888. After childhood polio left her with leg weakness she was encouraged to swim and by the age of 10 she was winning competitions. When she was 14 the family moved to London where her father determined to make money from her skills. He announced that Annette would swim 26 miles along the Thames, an unheard of feat at that time. Annette succeeded, wearing a man's tight-fitting, shoulder to hips, one piece swimsuit that left legs, arms and neck bare. At that time women swam in dress and pantaloon combinations. Annette performed as The Diving Venus in vaudeville shows at the London Hippodrome wearing her costume. However when she wore it in Boston in 1907 the police were called and Annette was charged with indecency. Following her court appearance Annette sewed sleeves, stockings and a neckpiece to her costume. By 1910 Kellerman's original costume, plus legs to the knees, had become accepted swimwear for women. She starred in a 1914 Hollywood film Neptune's Daughter in which her skinny-dipping scenes caused further scandal. A film about Annette's life, Million Dollar Mermaid, starring Esther Williams was released in 1952.

Ed. An Australian documentary about Annette Kellerman's life has recently been made, with the Network lending an old calliper to give authenticity to the production. The film's Director has just advised me that the film is premiering at the Sydney Film Festival in June 2003, and will go to air on SBS TV sometime soon after that. Keep an eye out for it in your TV guides.

Polio survivors bring lawsuit against theatre

Margo Gathright-Dietrich and Bonnie Bonham, wheelchair users due to PPS, have filed a federal lawsuit against a theatre in Atlanta claiming that it violates the Americans with Disabilities Act. According to the Atlanta Journal (25/7/02) the lawsuit claims that the theatre: segregates disabled patrons into inferior seating locations - either at the far back or extreme sides - and frequently charges the highest ticket prices for these locations; provides a 'handicap corral' at the farthest possible distance from the stage that accommodates fewer than nine wheelchairs; provides people with disabilities poor access to concessions, restrooms and other amenities; requires some disabled patrons to come to the theatre ticket office and pay for their tickets in cash, while allowing non-disabled people to charge their tickets over the telephone; and provides some wheelchair accessible seating in aisles that are sloped, making it dangerous and uncomfortable for these patrons. Bonnie says she was reduced to tears after an irate usher scolded her because she objected to not being able to sit next to her husband at a show.

Siblings of polio survivors

A Norwegian study titled Education, occupations, and perception of health among previous polio patients compared to their siblings was published in the European Journal of Neurology (May 2002). The researchers, Farbu and Gilhus, found that the educational levels of the 168 survivors and their 239 siblings did not differ but survivors experienced reduced professional options. Survivors were less likely to be in full time employment at the age of 40 than were their siblings. Compared to siblings, more survivors lived on their own. Survivors rated their total life situations and general health as poorer and reported more frequent pain and tiredness than did their siblings.

'Polio Man', silent polio carrier

BBC News (22/7/02) reported the case of a European man in his late 20s, referred to as 'Polio Man', who is carrying the polio virus but has not developed the disease even though he is immunodeficient. It is thought that Polio Man originally received the weakened form of the virus in the Sabin vaccine and somehow this mutated in his body into the full-strength natural virus. Doctors were alerted to his case in 1995 when conducting a study into gastric problems associated with immunodeficiency. One test during the study involved analysis of the man's faeces and this revealed the presence of polio. It appears he may have been excreting the live virus for over 20 years. The head of Virology at the UK National Institute for Biological Standards and Control said: Although there is no official record that anyone has caught polio from him, it is a possibility. Unvaccinated children could be at risk of contracting polio if their mothers have not passed on antibodies. The man is not likely to be in contact with small children. The case is very relevant to the ongoing debate about how necessary vaccination programs will be after the 'elimination' of polio. I liked a comment by virologist Professor John Oxford, No vaccine is safe but it's a damn sight better than the real disease.