Five children contract polio from vaccine

From being labelled the world’s lone polio exporter in 2006 to reporting just one positive case up to August this year, the polio scenario had never looked better for India. Sadly celebrations are not in offing as the country is now faced with the challenge of fighting the vaccine-derived polio virus rather than the wild virus itself. Simply put, the small quantity of the weakened polio virus present in the oral polio vaccine (to activate an immune response) is the one seemingly causing polio in children now. At least, five children have been struck by the vaccine-derived polio, whereas only one child has tested positive for the wild polio virus. There were 21 cases of vaccine-derived polio in 2009 that came down to six in 2010. Experts are of the view that even though cases of vaccine-derived polio are a cause of worry, it is not as threatening as the...