12119: 12104: Re: Haiti-Polio (12103) (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Michelle Jean-Pierre <mich@haitimed.org>

<<I do not understand why UNICEF, WHO and PAHO have apparently decided to use the oral polio vaccine in Haiti.  Health professionals are supposed to be patient advocates.>> (amedard@gte.net)

This is a serious question that we may need to focus on. Why is it that in Haiti (and many other third world countries) the oral polio vaccine is still being used when elsewhere in the world it has been banned ? Why double standards in Medicine ?

Please read an editorial of the New England Journal of Medicine in Volume 344:61-63  January 4, 2001  Number 1 "The Final Stages of the Global Eradication of Polio" (see below on how to get that editorial). Every health officials in Haiti who are making decisions ought to read this editorial and many other original research articles supporting the banning of the live polio vaccine.

This editorial should give any lay individual (like me) a clear idea of the right choice between Oral Polio Vaccine and Inactivated Polio Vaccine.

Michelle
http://www.haitimedical.com

PS: You will find this article at http://www.nejm.org by searching in past publications. If you cannot access it, please email me and I will send you a copy.