nsnbcPublished On: Sun, Dec 1st, 2013By Christof LehmannPhilippine Polio Vaccine Program puts Lives of 30.000 Children at RiskChristof Lehmann (nsnbc) , - The Philippine Department of Health (PDH) has started a campaign to inoculate every child in the hardest hit areas after Typhoon Haiyan with polio vaccine. The campaign is organized in cooperation with the WHO, UNICEF and 23 private partners. Critics warn that the program is based on speculation and lobbying rather than risk assessment.
A 2011 Polio Vaccination Campaign in India has been correlated to the death of 47.500 children from non-polio acute flaccid paralysis (NPAPF), which is clinically indistinguishable from polio.The UN News Centre reports, (1) that the WHO and UNICEF, under the supervision of the Philippine Department of Health (PDH) and in cooperation with 23 other international partners is targeting some 30.000 children in the worst affected areas in the Philippines after Typhoon Haiyan with vaccines against Polio and Measles. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is one of the main international partners.
The UNICEF press Centre reports, that the campaign is aimed at vaccinating all children under the age of 5 in the disaster affected areas, stating that disease is a silent predator and that UNICEF has the know how to prevent it, and will do everything it can do.
Critics however, warn that the orally administered Polio Vaccine itself, may be a silent killer and cause more harm than benefits. While the World Health Organization (WHO) informs on its website (2), that the orally administered Polio Vaccine can cause Vaccine Derived Polio (VDP), there are other experts who are warning about a much greater risk, which is the potential of an epidemic of acute flaccid paralysis.
Polio Vaccination Campaign in India caused the Death of 47.500 Children from Acute Flaccid Paralysis.After a 2011 Polio Vaccination Campaign in India, Dr. Neetu Vashisht and Dr. Jacob Puliyel, published an article in the peer reviewed Indian Journal of Medical Ethics, warning that there were an extra 47.500 new cases of non-acute flaccid paralysis after the vaccination program.
Dr. Neetu Vaashisht and Dr. Jacob Puliyel, who is a member of the National Technical Advisory Group on Immunization in India, and who is working at St. Stephens Hospital, Delhi, stressed, that NPAFT is clinically indistinguishable from polio paralysis but twice as deadly.
Most importantly, the two vaccine experts stressed that the incidence of NPAFT was directly proportional to doses of oral polio vaccine received. (3)An article, written by Joe Samuel, moreover, documented that the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which also is one of the “international partners” in the Philippine vaccination campaign, as well as a number of transnational corporations, are heavily involved in lobbying for the widest possible use of the apparently unsafe vaccine. (4)
Mainstream media coverage about the vaccination campaign in the Philippines ignore the repeated warnings from experts, who stress that the use of the oral polio vaccine, in the light of mounting evidence about its dangers is unethical and dangerous.
Standard reporting about the campaign is best represented by a BBC report that stresses that “Huge numbers – including many children – were left homeless, and many are surviving in cramped, unhygienic conditions in damaged buildings”, adding that such conditions facilitate the spread of polio. (5)
Critics of the Philippine vaccination program stress that the ethically most sound and most effective approach to preventing a polio epidemic is to provide adequate, hygienic housing and food for the displaced populations, rather than vaccinating children, knowing that the there will be following vaccine related death of children from non-acute flaccid paralysis, which is indistinguishable from polio, and which will be directly proportional to the number of doses administered to the Philippine children.
_______
Notes:
1) Philippines: over 30,000 targeted in UN-supported polio, measles vaccination campaign
2) What is vaccine-derived polio ?
3) Vashisht & Puliyel, Indian Journal of Medical Ethics, “Polio programme: let us declare victory and move on”
4) Bill Gates’ Polio Vaccine Program Caused 47,500 Cases of Paralysis Death
5) BBC: Mass immunisation programme begins in the PhilippinesAbout the Author
Dr. Christof Lehmann is the founder and editor of nsnbc. He is a psychologist and independent political consultant on conflict and conflict resolution and a wide range of other political issues. His work with traumatized victims of conflict has led him to also pursue the work as political consultant. He is a lifelong activist for peace and justice, human rights, Palestinians rights to self-determination in Palestine, and he is working on the establishment of international institutions for the prosecution of all war crimes, also those committed by privileged nations. On 28 August 2011 he started his blog nsnbc, appalled by misrepresentations of the aggression against Libya and Syria. In March 2013 he turned nsnbc into a daily, independent, international on-line newspaper. He can be contacted at nsnbc international at nsnbc.wordpress@gmail.com