Adding to the evidence that polio vaccine is not effective against the disease, two more children in Pakistan are reported to have contracted polio.
According to Dawn, a one-year-old girl in Peshawar and a 3-year-old boy in Quetta were diagnosed with polio after they developed paralysis. Both children had been vaccinated multiple times against polio—the girl had received 5 does of the vaccine and the boy seven doses.
Dr. Rana Safdar, head of the country’s national operation cell against polio, was quoted by the paper as he blamed the failure of the vaccine on malnutrition. He says vaccinated children still have low immunity because of malnutrition, so they are contracting the disease.
The official’s statement comes as an acknowledgement of the vaccine’s failure. If the vaccine is failing to boost immunity and malnutrition is the determining factor, then vaccination isn’t of use. This inference logically follows the observation of frequent cases of vaccinated children contracting polio and large numbers of unvaccinated children living disease-free.
Earlier this year, a child given an alarmingly high number of the oral polio vaccine (OPV), which contains a live polio virus, in Sukkur (Sindh province of Pakistan) was affected by polio. The 18-month-young boy was given 19 doses of the vaccine! No independent investigation of that case has been carried out and made public far as media reports are concerned, and there has been no cap set by the World Health Organization (WHO) on the number of OPV doses administered to children.
One thought on “Failed Vaccine: Two Vaccinated Children in Pakistan Get Polio”