Muslim Vaccine Hesitancy and Polio

1,800 Views | 11 Replies | Last: 4 yr ago by ramblin_ag02
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SoulSlaveAG2005
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As a member of Rotary, it is crazy how hard these last two holdout regions are to finish off polio.

I wouldn't classify polio as making a resurgence, last numbers I saw were cases in the dozens. In 30 years known cases have gone from the hundred of thousands to less than 100. With all the cars being in two small pockets of Afghanistan/Pakistan . The issues you brought up have been a constant concern and are not anything new, every other Muslim country has successfully utilized and eradicated polio with the same vaccines.
ramblin_ag02
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Quote:

They (probably correctly) also point out that the money spent on polio eradication would benefit them more if it was spent on infrastructure or other forms of healthcare.
I understand the challenges, but this is a hard stop. Polio vaccines are dirt cheap. The only thing costing money is transportation of the vaccine and paying the health care workers administering and running the program. You don't get that kind of bang for your buck with anything else in medicine. Also, other nations are much more willing to fork over money to completely eradicate infectious diseases. Everyone breathes easier when all the wild cases are gone and we can stop vaccinating everyone for polio. Hard to get that sort of motivation from other countries for things like hypertension
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ramblin_ag02
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Considering the locals are the ones actually getting polio, I'm not sure I agree. For everyone else it's a potential risk. For them it's an actual risk
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Dad-O-Lot
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AstroAg17 said:

. The anti-vaccine movement isn't just soccer moms and dad-o-lot; some Muslims are refusing vaccines as well for reasons similar to those of the domestic anti-vax crowd.
I'm flattered, I've been identified with a "movement" by someone who doesn't really know where I stand regarding vaccines, other than not ceding bodily autonomy to the government and not blindly trusting.
People of integrity expect to be believed, when they're not, they let time prove them right.
bigtruckguy3500
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So, actually the oral polio vaccine isn't as benign as the inactivated injection that we get in the US. You can actually get a full blown case of polio from the oral vaccine. A long time ago, when polio was very common, it was deemed a necessary side effect to save tens of thousands at the expense of maybe a few hundred. Now, in some areas, the chance of getting actual polio from the vaccine is higher than getting actual polio from the wild.

It's because the oral vaccine is a live- attenuated form of the virus, and every now and again (I think one in every 100) it mutates back to a virulent strain. Out of those that mutate back, not all will cause paralysis, but some might.

It's a catch 22 really. On the one hand, your chance of getting paralysis from the vaccine is greater than getting it from the actual virus. However, if you decrease vaccination rates, then regular polio may start making a comeback.

So, regardless of the cultural/religious reasons for not getting the vaccine (even though multiple religious leaders have declared it ok), it's not unreasonable for them to be fearful of this particular vaccine.
ramblin_ag02
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The live virus oral vaccine is both a bug and a feature. You're right in that it has a non zero chance of mutating back to a virulent strain. The advantage is that it's easier, cheaper, and safer to administer. It also has the potential for the live strain to propogate through a community and immunize the contacts of vaccinated people without them having to receive the vaccine directly. So in many ways it's a better choice for remote, rural, or poor areas.

At some point the math on that changes to the vaccine being more dangerous than the vanishing wild strains, but I don't know if we're there yet
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bigtruckguy3500
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True, but I think in some regions we may be there

https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2017/06/28/534403083/mutant-strains-of-polio-vaccine-now-cause-more-paralysis-than-wild-polio

https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2019/11/15/779865471/polio-vaccine-may-be-preventing-the-end-of-polio
Duncan Idaho
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I wonder of our use of vaccination teams to confirm bin laden's location had any impact on this.

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/news/2015/02/150225-polio-pakistan-vaccination-virus-health/
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ramblin_ag02
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Duncan Idaho said:

I wonder of our use of vaccination teams to confirm bin laden's location had any impact on this.

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/news/2015/02/150225-polio-pakistan-vaccination-virus-health/
Wow. I'd never heard that before. Can't say I'm surprised that the CIA would risk the outbreak of debilitating but preventable disease and the lives of dozens if not hundreds of healthcare workers just to get a chance to kill one infamous person
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