Panel Calls for New Approach to Polio Fight
A federal advisory panel, hoping to reduce the number of polio cases caused by vaccination, recommended a major change Thursday in the way America’s children are immunized against the disease.
The proposal, which the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta is expected to approve, would revive use of the original vaccine created by Dr. Jonas Salk in 1954.
Since 1961 most children have been given an orally administered vaccine. Invented by Dr. Albert Sabin, it is believed to provide better immunity against the disease. But it also is believed to cause about 10 cases of polio every year.
The current anti-polio regimen involves administering four doses of the oral vaccine, which has a live but weakened version of the virus, during the first two years of life.
The new approach calls for two injections of the killed-virus Salk vaccine, followed by two doses of the Sabin vaccine. Experts believe that the injections would provide immunity against the oral vaccine.
The Sabin vaccine also provokes immunity in individuals who have not received it but have had contact with people who did.
“It has been more than 15 years since a case of naturally occurring polio has been found in the U.S., yet we can fill this room with Americans who have contracted polio from the oral vaccine since then,” John Salamone, whose son, David, contracted the disease from a 1990 vaccination with the Sabin product, told the CDC committee, which met in Atlanta.
Those who oppose changing the immunization schedule argue that it will force children to endure more injections, which could require additional visits to pediatrician. That, they say, could result in fewer children being immunized.
“If immunization rates dropped . . . the U.S. could be at risk for outbreaks of vaccine-preventable diseases, like pertussis and measles,” said a statement issued by Wyeth-Lederle Vaccines & Pediatrics, manufacturer of the Sabin vaccine. The injectable product is made by Connaught Laboratories Inc., which also makes a version of the oral vaccine.
