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Kurska

(5,739 posts)
Tue Jun 24, 2014, 09:15 AM Jun 2014

Polio virus sample found at Brazil airport

A strain of the polio virus has been found at an international airport in Brazil, but there are no human cases, the World Health Organization has said.

On Monday, a WHO statement released said the virus was found in samples taken from sewage at Viracopos International Airport in Sao Paulo state in March.

It is said that the local population's high immunity to the disease "appears to have prevented transmission".


Brazil has been polio-free since 1989 and has high vaccination coverage.

The organization said that the virus was found in "sewage only" and subsequent analysis of similar samples have either been negative or only positive for "non-polio enteroviruses".

The WHO said the sample was a close match with a recent strain isolated in a case in Equatorial Guinea.

The UN agency described the risk of the polio virus spreading from Equatorial Guinea is “high”, but it said the risk from Brazil remained "very low".

Polio invades the nervous system and can cause irreversible paralysis within hours. There is no cure for the disease but it can be prevented by immunization.

http://www.worldbulletin.net/news/139463/polio-virus-sample-found-at-brazil-airport

Luckily, there were no idiot wooists living close enough to this incident to cause their children to be horrible mutilated for life by this disease.

Yet, people forget these diseases haven't been entirely eliminated. With modern travel no nation is ever more than a flight away from being re-exposed to these deadly diseases. If you don't vaccinate your child, you're playing international dice with their life.

Woo kills.

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