Last week we linked to a story by about a wide-scale vaccination program underway in Xinjiang after a major outbreak:
“A mass vaccination program is underway in Xinjiang following an outbreak of polio that has left at least one infant . The World Health Organization has seven cases of wild poliovirus type 1 in the province over the past two months. It is the first outbreak of polio in China in more than a decade. The disease, whihc can cause irreversible paralysis, is said to have spread from Pakistan, one of the few countries in which polio is still endemic.”
now has an updated the story. Apparently the government has now broadened the program so that it has taken on truly gigantic proportions:
Immunizations of 4.5 million 15-39 year olds in the south of the province started today, following confirmation that four of the 10 known cases involved young adults.
For the complete story, go to the China Bystander page, . (And if you’re wondering, the picture is of an iron-lung room for polio patients in the 1940′s, courtesy of the which writes about polio in the excellent essay on Philip Roth’s book Nemesis about Polio in pre-vaccination America)
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