News Outlets Discuss Recent Vaccine-Derived Polio Outbreaks In Ukraine, Mali

BBC News: Ukraine health officials fear big polio outbreak
“Health officials in Ukraine are gripped by fears of a major polio outbreak, after it was announced this month that the disease had paralyzed two children in the south-western region of Trans-Carpathia. Concerns that the virus could cut a deadly swathe through the country has mobilized officials to launch a national immunization campaign that would embrace all children up to 10 years old…” (Stern, 9/22).

Quartz: New outbreaks of polio are “vaccine-derived” — but that doesn’t mean vaccines caused polio
“Shortly after the world celebrated Nigeria’s success in going a year without a single diagnosed case of polio on July 24, disturbing new outbreaks crippled children in Ukraine and Mali. Two cases in Ukraine turned out to be ‘vaccine-derived,’ feeding local fears of the vaccine, and providing fodder to anti-vaxxers worldwide. … Quartz spoke with Dr. Jay Wenger, a former epidemiologist with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, who now leads the Gates Foundation’s polio eradication program…” (Merelli, 9/21).

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