114 patients were infected with polio virus in Australian in 1993 according to a report published by the Commonwealth Department of Health on November 14, 1994. Three quarters of these were under the age of one year.

The same report for 1992 recorded 195 cases, 140 of which were under the age of one year. 20 of these were deaths classified as SIDS.

CDI Bulletins Nov. 14, 1994 and Nov 15th 1993.

VAN has done some investigation on this matter due to the PHU's claim that the last case of polio in Australia was in 1986. These cases were diagnosed in a laboratory from samples sent in by doctors who were testing sick children. Polio virus was found in all of these cases and yet, despite a laboratory diagnosis of the disease, the doctors' diagnoses were not polio. Why is that? If a child is ill and goes to the doctor and a test is sent off and comes back with flu virus, the child is diagnosed with flu.

What are the doctors trying to hide here? Is it possible that these children were all vaccinated against polio so to diagnose polio would raise awkward questions? What about the children who died of SIDS? Dr. Scheibner, in her book on vaccination, cites many studies which show a correlation between polio vaccination and SIDS. Did these children die because they were vaccinated? These are questions which the medical community must answer but this information has not been forthcoming.

Netherlands

After 14 years without endemic (non-imported) polio, an outbreak of 71 cases occurred in the Netherlands between September 1992 and February 1993. The Lancet reported on that outbreak in September last year.

Vaccination in the Netherlands consists of six doses of IPV during the first ten years of life. IPV is the injected Salk-type vaccine. According to the report, the vaccination coverage of one-year-olds had been around 97% for many years. However, it was reported that all cases except one belonged to a religious group who generally refuse vaccination.

The report stated, "No patient in the present outbreak had been vaccinated. The same is true of 174 poliomyelitis patients who have been reported in the Netherlands since 1968. These findings show the excellent protection against poliomyelitis offered by the vaccination program..."

This is indeed an impressive finding. But can we believe the authors when they say no patient had been vaccinated?

Only the first two cases were described in the report. Case number one was a 14 year old boy who had in fact been vaccinated as an infant with one dose of OPV, the oral vaccine similar to that used in Australia. Case number two was reported one week later. No mention was made of his vaccination status.

However, prior to case two being reported, 'control measures' were instituted. This involved offering polio vaccine to all people in the area who were unvaccinated or were vaccinated more than 15 years previously. The immediate demand for vaccine "overwhelmed the regional public health services."

Fortunately, another report on the outbreak was sent to us by a member. It was a short article published in the beginning of the outbreak describing the first few cases (MMWR, Oct. 16 1992). In describing case number two, it was mentioned that he had been vaccinated one day before the onset of his paralysis.

According to this report, "Since the first case was identified, public health officials in the Netherlands have initiated intensive efforts to vaccinate members of the groups at risk..."