August 11, 2007	Saturday	Rajab 26, 1428

ISLAMABAD, Aug 10: Doctors termed unprofessional the practice of administering oral polio drops without taking into consideration the child’s medical background and said it might imperil the safety of children with medical conditions.

The Centre for Disease Control’s Advisory Coommittee on Immunisation Practices (Vaccines for Children Programme) warns that Oral Polio Vaccine (OPV) patients with recognised immunodeficiency are at greater risk of developing paralysis when exposed to live (oral vaccine) polio virus than people with normal immune system.

Altered immune status may be because of the following conditions: malignant (blood dyscrasia, leukemia, lymphoma, or other neoplasms affecting the bone marrow of lymphatic systems); primary or acquired immune deficiency, including acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) or other clinical manifestations of HIV infection, cellular immunodeficiencies, hypogammaglobulinemia, and dysgammaglobulinemia; family history of congenital or hereditary immunodeficiency, unless immune competence of possible vaccine recipient is demonstrated; and individuals receiving immunosuppressive therapy.

Doctors said that the poliovirus vaccine should not be used in such patients because OPV contained live attenuated virus, which could be harmful for children with recognized immunodeficiency.

Programme Manager of Extended Programme of Immunisation Dr Rehan Hafiz, said there was a possibility that certain patients suffering from such ailments could contract polio. But since the start of the programme, no case has been reported, he said.

He said polio vaccine injections were being used only in those counties which had been declared polio-free country since long.