| Short news items with a Post-Polio element gleaned
from 'here, there and everywhere'. Contributions welcomed. Email newsbites@loncps.demon.co.uk.
Please make it clear that your news item is for inclusion in NewsBites
and include any source references.
Polio Virus Eradication: CDC/WHO
report "apparent elimination of wild poliovirus type 2".
Various news sources carried reports similar to this from Reuters Health:
"At least one strain of wild poliovirus seems to have been eradicated,
the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), in Atlanta, Georgia,
announced on Thursday."
The definative source is a report entitled "Apparent Global Interruption
of Wild Poliovirus Type 2 Transmission" that appeared in this week's MMWR
(Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report 2001;50:222-224). The report includes
the following editorial note:
The apparent elimination of wild poliovirus type 2 represents a milestone
for the global polio eradication initiative and an indication that the
current strategies can eradicate poliovirus types 1 and 3. Since late
1999, the global polio laboratory network has processed tens of thousands
of stool specimens, including those from countries at high risk for
undetected poliovirus circulation. All polioviruses type 2 isolated
since October 1999 have been vaccine derived, and the declining genetic
diversity of the last wild isolates from India is consistent with the
final phase of transmission.
Before the advent of the polio vaccine, wild poliovirus type 2 had
worldwide distribution. As the vaccine was introduced, particularly
in temperate climates, wild poliovirus type 2 transmission disappeared
quickly. Transmission continued in countries with high population density
and poor sanitation, but disappeared more quickly than other polio-virus
types as vaccination rates improved. The high immunogenicity of type
2 polio-viruses in OPV and the efficient spread of the vaccine-derived
strain from vaccinated persons to close contacts may be important factors
in its earlier disappearance.
Although the likelihood of undetected transmission decreases with time,
evidence of interruption of type 2 transmission is reinforced with continued
improvement in AFP surveillance, particularly in Africa, where the nonpolio
AFP rate and rate of timely specimen collection remain inadequate in
some high-risk countries. In addition, the increased laboratory workload
generated by improving stool collection rates must be met with additional
human and financial resources to maintain the quality and timeliness
of specimen processing.
Although wild polioviruses types 1 and 3 have been more difficult to
control than type 2, the experience in the Americas, Western Pacific,
and Europe underscores the feasibility of global eradication of all
wild poliovirus serotypes.
The complete text of the report can be found at http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr//preview/mmwrhtml/mm5012a2.htm
Alternatively, the complete issue of MMWR in which the report appears
can be found at http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr//PDF/wk/mm5012.pdf
For Polio Vaccine related resources see our directory Polio
Virus, Vaccine and Eradication
![[ Index ]](../buttons/rwindex.gif)
Dr. Albert Sabin: A proper place
for his name.
The Cincinnati Enquirer (http://enquirer.com/) carried
the following article:
In 1977, a dusty little patch of grass on Third Street between Plum
and Elm streets was named the Albert B. Sabin Park. We honored the man
who conquered polio with crabgrass and a couple of benches.
And only temporarily.
Dr. Sabin's widow, Heloisa, looked for the little park when she came
to town Tuesday and found the on-ramp for Interstates 71 and 75 south
off Third Street is in its place.
We tried again in 1986 with the Albert B. Sabin Convention Center.
Not the right place. Not really. He was not the Patron Saint of Tourists.
He was the man who saved a billion children from polio. This was just
our best new building when the late Dr. Charles Barrett threw his considerable
weight into a plan to honor Dr. Sabin.
It's what we had.
Bragging rights.
In 1999, Delta Air Lines agreed to pay $30 million for the naming rights
to an expanded convention center. The Delta-Sabin Convention Center?
The Sabin-Delta Convention Center? His charming widow was not charmed.
Dr. Sabin, who never held a patent on the oral vaccine, didn't make
a dime from it and steadfastly refused to allow his name to be used
commercially. "But he loved Cincinnati, and I know he would want what
is best for the people here," she said at the time. "This is a lot of
money."
She flew here from her home in Washington, D.C., in September 1999
for a luncheon with influential public and private officials. Perhaps,
the men told her, this is our chance to do something better, more fitting.
From across an expanse of crisp white tablecloth, Jim Anderson, CEO
of Children's Hospital, told her simply, "I brag about Dr. Sabin regularly."
And he went back to his board of directors and suggested it would make
sense to extend the bragging rights to the entire institution.
"Dad's guinea pigs".
So Tuesday night, a $23 million education center with an auditorium,
library and conference rooms was dedicated, very near where Dr. Sabin
began his work in 1939.
"By naming our education center for him, we keep alive the memory of
a scientist and physician whose research improved the health of children
around the world," said the brochure. Mrs. Sabin tucked one in a bag
with the oversized scissors and a scrap of the ribbon she had been asked
to cut.
Dr. Sabin's daughters, Amy and Deborah, who were 5 and 7 years old
when they became "my dad's guinea pigs", were there too. Asked if she
remembered those early days, Deborah laughed and said, "You don't forget
all those throat swabs and carrying a cup to school for stool samples."
Her father was meticulously breeding the virulence out of the three
types of polio virus that cause paralysis. He traveled from Cincinnati
to Europe, Asia, Russia. It was not enough that he would develop a serum
-- he insisted that his work save "all the world's children."
Young docs, wrestling with diseases we haven't heard of yet, will have
a subtle, daily nudge, a reminder of why they're in this building. And
Cincinnati can remind itself that the iron lung died here. And a generation
lived -- without the threat of a murderous, crippling disease -- because
of what one man did in our city.
The Albert B. Sabin, M.D., Education Center at Children's Hospital
Medical Center.
We finally got it right.
The full text of the article can be found at http://enquirer.com/editions/2001/03/29/loc_pulfer_dr_albert.html
Uncertainty now remains over how
many Irish children may have to receive the Polio vaccine again.
The Irish Independent (http://www.unison.ie/irish_independent/)
reported the following in an article by Eilish O'Regan, Health Correspondent,
under the headline "Measles cases showing decline":
...Meanwhile, it emerged yesterday that health boards which estimated
that more than 4,000 children may have received an out of date polio
vaccine may have got their figures wrong.
The Department of Health announced that 4,520 children received the
out of date vaccine between January, 1998 and 1999.
But family doctors in the Mid Western, Western, Midland and Southern
Health Boards have now been told that the vaccine were not out of date.
Uncertainty now remains over how many children may have to receive
the vaccine again.
The expiry date on the vaccines refers to the month and year and health
boards believed initially that any vaccine given after the beginning
of the month in question was out of date.
However, it has now emerged that health boards are saying the vaccines
are not out of date until the end of the month mentioned on the product.
The full text of the article of which the above is an extract can be
found at http://www.unison.ie/irish_independent/
stories.php3?ti=41&ca=9&si=392191&issue_id=4191
Polio Virus Eradication: Somali
hostage releases likely.
BBC News Online (http://news.bbc.co.uk/) reports
on Thursday, 29 March, 2001, 15:37 GMT 16:37:
A group of Somali warlords has said that the four aid workers being
held in Mogadishu will be released soon.
The warlords said at a news conference in the Ethiopian capital, Addis
Ababa, that they are in touch with the kidnappers and that the hostages
are safe and sound.
They said that logistical problems were holding up their release.
The four UN workers being held are two Britons, a Belgian and a French
Algerian.
The hostages were abducted after gunmen belonging to one of Mogadishu's
warlords, Musa Sudi Yalahow, attacked the offices of humanitarian organisation,
Medecins Sans Frontieres killing at least 12 Somalis.
MSF says it has now suspended operations in the Somali capital.
Five other foreign aid workers - including two Spaniards and a Briton
- and a Somali national, who were trapped after the gun battle, were
brought to safety on Wednesday morning.
All nine were working for a joint UN and WHO programme, vaccinating
Somali children against polio.
The full text of the article of which the above is an extract can be
found at http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/africa/newsid_1249000/1249494.stm
For Polio Vaccine related resources see our directory Polio
Virus, Vaccine and Eradication
28th March 2001
U.S.A.: PPS Disability Success.
The following notice was received from Dick Bruno:
William A. Halter, Acting Commissioner of Social Security, wrote to my
Congressman, Steve Rothman of NJ, on March 22, 2001, agreeing to ALL of
the changes to the disability regulations for "The Late Effects of Poliomyelitis"
we have requested for 3 years.
The Commissioner's letter said:
"We share Dr. Bruno's concerns about how people with post-polio syndrome
(PPS) are evaluated for disability, and we are taking steps to address
them...we have concluded that some refresher training to emphasize our
existing policy guidelines would be helpful for disability adjudicators
at the State disability determination service. We are now considering
the best approach, method and schedule for this refresher training.
Moreover, we agree that some revisions to our current Program Operations
Manual System discussion dealing with the evaluation of PPS are warranted,
and we will be revising this material within the next few months. We
will also ensure that these same policy guidelines are available to
all our adjudicators through the appellate levels by issuing a Social
Security Ruling addressing PPS within the same time period.
I am confident that we will be able to successfully address the issues
Dr. Bruno has been bringing to our attention concerning claimants with
PPS, and I appreciate his input and patience as we conclude our study
and finalize our plans."
If any of you are applying for SSDI or have been denied, use this info
in a letter you include with your application or appeal. If SSA agrees
it has to change it's policies, how can they deny polio survivors?
BUT, we still need to keep on top of these folk. It's taken 3 years for
them to respond! Please write a brief note to Mr. Halter, something like
this:
William A. Halter,
Acting Commissioner of Social Security
Social Security Administration
Baltimore, MD 21235-0001
Dear Mr. Halter:
Thank you for agreeing to revise the POMS for "The Late Effects of
Poliomyelitis," drafting a Ruling and retraining state adjudicators
to stop polio survivors' inappropriate consultative examinations and
denials. Dr. Bruno is looking forward to contributing his expertise
again to make these changes and help polio survivors get the benefits
the deserve.
Yours truly,
Name
Address
THANK YOU FOR YOUR HELP IN FIGHTING FOR THIS OVER THE YEARS!
Be well,
Dr. Richard L. Bruno
Chairperson
International Post-Polio Task Force
and
Director
The Post-Polio Institute
and
The International Centre for Post-Polio Education and Research
Englewood Hospital and Medical Center
Englewood, New Jersey U.S.A. 07631
Phone: (201) 894-3724 Toll Free: 1-877-POST-POLIO
Fax: (201) 542-6491
PPSENG@AOL.COM
Set your browser to:
http://members.aol.com/ppseng/pps.html
for the PPS Library and all of our papers describing our research and
treatment of PPS.
End of Notice.
Articles by Dr. Bruno can be found in our Lincolnshire Post-Polio Library.
See the catalogue for:
Bruno, Richard L., Ph.D.
See also our Directory entries for:
The Post-Polio Institute,
Englewood (NJ) Hospital and Medical Center Dr. Bruno
The Harvest Center
25th March 2001
Gonzales Warm Springs Foundation Hospital in Gonzales, Texas to be closed.
It was announced March 23, 2001, that the Gonzales Warm Springs Foundation
Hospital in Gonzales, Texas will be closed. A new 32,000 sq. ft. state
of the art facility will be built in the town of Gonzales, Texas to replace
the old facility. The old facility was established in 1937 to treat polio
patients. Also, it was announced that the new facility will house a "Polio
Museum" to depict the history of the hospital. Warm Springs Rehabilitation
Foundation announced that they would match donations for the "Polio Museum"
dollar for dollar up to $50,000.00. The museum will also house a library
and will have information on polio and PPS.
The planned reunion for polio survivors and those affiliated with Gonzales
Warm Springs Foundation Hospital will now include the groundbreaking for
the new facility. The theme for the new facility is "The Legend Continues."
Warm Springs Rehabilitation has grown over the years from the original
facility to a nonprofit corporation with 14 facilities throughout Texas.
They now have 4 inpatient facilities, and the other facilities are outpatient
facilities. The thrust of their mission is rehab treatment for stroke
victims and spinal cord injuries among other disabilities. They are also
planning on providing diagnosis and treatment of PPS.
So, on June 2, 2001, as well as the planned reunion for former polio
patients, there will be the groundbreaking for the new Warm Springs Rehabilitation
Hospital, Gonzales facility.
Information supplied by Donald R. "Speck" DeVore.
Additional information about the reunion can be found in our World-Wide
Conference and Seminar Diary Card #0022.
16th March 2001
Polio Virus Eradication: Rotarians Mount Campaign To Eradicate Polio By
2005.
AllAfrica Global Media (http://allafrica.com/) carried
the following Panafrican News Agency (PANA) report by Tervil Okoko from
Nairobi, Kenya:
Rotary International plans to spend 500 million US dollars to wipe
out polio in the world by 2005 in a project code-named PolioPlus.
A 1999 World Health Organisation (WHO) Assembly resolution urged polio-endemic
countries to step up their polio eradication activities to ensure every
child is reached through high quality national or sub-national immunisation
days, house-to-house "mopping up" campaigns, and improved surveillance
to ensure all cases of acute flaccid paralysis are detected and promptly
investigated.
The WHO and its partners - Rotary International, UNICEF and the US
Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) - accelerated the global
drive towards polio eradication during the 1999-2000 period.
Talking to PANA this week in Nairobi, Rotary International's senior
media relations specialist for Europe and Africa, Mary E. la Plante,
said the organisation has already spent 378 million dollars in the PolioPlus
project.
"Rotary International has been a great partner in this campaign, which
is now on track, to certify the world polio-free by 2005," UNICEF executive
director Carol Bellamy is quoted as saying in the Rotary Foundation's
1999-2000 report.
In Africa alone, la Plante says polio is prevalent, especially in West
Africa, Rotary's PolioPlus programme has spent nearly 121 million dollars
since 1985 to support massive national immunisation efforts.
In the PolioPlus, she says, local Rotarians work in co-operation with
international agencies such as the WHO, UNICEF, and national governments
to help fight polio and support child immunisation and other vaccine
preventable diseases so that the world can be certified polio free by
2005, Rotary's centennial.
More so, through the health, hunger and humanity programme, Rotary
Foundation has approved more than 12 million dollars for humanitarian
projects in Africa, while the Rotary Foundation has also awarded more
than 14.5 million dollars in matching grants for humanitarian projects.
The report says that while Europe will be declared polio-free by the
end of 2001, Africa and South East Asia remain the biggest grey areas
where the PolioPlus campaign must be intensified.
India is one of the top priorities among nations where polio still
exists, while the Western Pacific is on target to become the second
region, after Europe, to be declared polio-free.
The PolioPlus Partners programme provides Rotarians world-wide with
an opportunity to support social mobilisation, laboratory, surveillance
and other polio eradication projects. Since its inception, about two
billion children world-wide have received oral polio vaccine and are
successfully protected from polio.
The number of polio endemic countries has also declined from over 125,
since PolioPlus began in 1985, to 30 at the beginning of the year 2000.
The full text of the article can be found at http://allafrica.com/stories/200103160161.html
* allafrica.com archive accessible by paid subscription only *
For Polio Vaccine related resources see our directory Polio
Virus, Vaccine and Eradication
DMC's Rehabilitation Institute of
Michigan Announces $34.5 Million New Construction and Renovation Project
in Downtown Detroit.
SOURCE: Detroit Medical Center Rehabilitation Institute of Michigan as
reported in Yahoo Business News (http://biz.yahoo.com/):
Rehabilitation Institute of Michigan (RIM), the state's largest, freestanding
rehabilitation hospital, is getting bigger and better.
Terry Reiley, president, RIM, today announced a $34.5 million facility
project, which will include construction of a state-of-the-art, two-story,
outpatient therapy and wellness center in the city of Detroit. Plans
include the building of a 23,000 square foot outpatient facility, named
the Brasza Outpatient Center, and designed to support RIM's substantial
growth in outpatient therapy and sports medicine.
In addition, the new facility will house a fitness center, running
track, physician offices and hydrotherapy services for patients with
orthopedic and musculoskeletal conditions.
The Brasza Outpatient Center will also be home to RIM's innovative
"Gateway to Independence," a community-based training module that helps
individuals with disabilities integrate back into the community.
The center will attach to the west wing of the current building, located
at 261 Mack Blvd. and extend out toward John R. St. With 80 percent
of the capital raised for this project, RIM will begin renovations immediately,
with new construction starting in 2002 and completing by 2004.
A substantial amount of the dollars will be used to renovate RIM's
four patient care floors, converting all patient rooms to private and
semi-private. Plans will also include the installation of wall gases,
which means more medically complex patients will be able to be served
by RIM.
"This investment will allow RIM's access to grow far beyond southeast
Michigan. We currently serve patients from throughout the state, but
our intake has been limited by our facilities," said Reiley.
Last year, RIM reported nearly 125,000 outpatient visits and 1,600
inpatient visits. RIM treats more spinal cord and brain injury patients
than any other program in the state.
RIM is one of 17 federally-designated centers of excellence in the
United States for the treatment of brain injuries.
RIM has been a staple in the Detroit community since 1951, helping
people rebuild their lives after a serious illness or injury such as
a stroke, spinal cord injury, brain injury, amputation or orthopedic
conditions.
"This $34.5 million project would not be possible without the generosity
of charitable organizations such as the Hudson-Webber Foundation and
Comerica Foundation as well as the financial support of former patients
like Mike Utley (Mike Utley Foundation) and the Henry and Marie Brasza
Family," Reiley said.
Through its affiliation with Wayne State School of Medicine, RIM's
physicians not only practice medicine but they are advancing the field
of physical medicine and rehabilitation through research aimed at restoring
function, improving quality of life and developing innovative therapeutic
techniques.
Rehabilitation Institute of Michigan was founded in 1951 at Herman
Keifer hospital to provide physical medicine and rehabilitation primarily
to individuals who contracted polio and veterans returning from World
War II with disabling injuries.
Although the focus of disability has changed over the years, RIM's
mission has remained the same: providing quality patient care, academic
excellence and cutting-edge research in physical medicine and rehabilitation.
Rehabilitation Institute of Michigan (RIM), is one of the nation's
largest hospitals specializing in physical medicine and rehabilitation,
and is nationally recognized as a center of excellence for the treatment
of brain and spinal cord injuries.
RIM is a member of the Detroit Medical Center and serves as the teaching
and clinical research site for Wayne State University School of Medicine.
The full text of the article can be found at http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/010315/deth018.html
Polio Virus Eradication: Unicef
Nears End Of Vaccination Drive.
AllAfrica Global Media (http://allafrica.com/) carried
the following UN Integrated Regional Information Network (IRIN) report
from Nairobi, Kenya on March 14, 2001:
The United Nations Children's Fund will on Friday begin a final round
to vaccinate some 350,000 Sierra Leonean children in rebel-held areas
of the country, a senior UNICEF official said in Geneva.
Joanna van Garpen, UNICEF's representative in Freetown, told reporters
on Tuesday that the effort, which began in 1998, had been possible because
of the "very close coordination" of RUF leaders. She said 82 percent
of the children in the rebel areas were vaccinated in a similar drive
in February.
The RUF allowed government health workers and over 1,000 volunteers
into the north, she said, as UNAMSIL troops provided security. Each
child must get at least four doses of vaccine to be fully covered.
The full text of the article can be found at http://allafrica.com/stories/200103140462.html
* allafrica.com archive accessible by paid subscription only *
For Polio Vaccine related resources see our directory Polio
Virus, Vaccine and Eradication
14th March 2001
Polio Virus Eradication: Warring Afghani factions call time out for polio
vaccinations.
The Sun Sentinal (http://www.sun-sentinel.com/)
carried the following Associated Press report from Islamabad, Pakistan
on March 14, 2001:
Afghanistan's warring factions began a weeklong truce to let the United
Nations immunize children against polio, a U.N. health official said
Wednesday.
The cease-fire between the ruling Taliban Islamic militia and its northern-based
opposition will allow more than 30,000 aid workers to vaccinate about
6 million children ages 5 and younger, Naveed Sadozai, a doctor with
the World Health Organization, said in neighboring Pakistan.
The truce began Tuesday and will last until Monday.
Afghanistan is among 30 countries where polio continues to cripple
people, mostly young children. In 2000, there were 115 new polio victims
in Afghanistan, compared to 156 in 1999, Sadozai said.
Warring factions fighting in northern Afghanistan twice held temporary
cease-fires last year to allow the United Nations to immunize millions
of children.
The full text of the article can be found at http://www.sun-sentinel.com/
news/daily/detail/0,1136,38000000000105493,00.html
For Polio Vaccine related resources see our directory Polio
Virus, Vaccine and Eradication
13th March 2001
Sierra Leone: National Policy On The Disabled.
AllAfrica Global Media (http://allafrica.com/) carried
the following UN Integrated Regional Information Network (IRIN) report
from Nairobi, Kenya on March 13, 2001:
A World Health Organization consultant, Chapel Khasnabis, has arrived
in Freetown to help the Ministry of Health develop a national policy
on the care of disabled persons, the Sierra Leone News Agency, SLENA,
reported on Monday.
During a courtesy call on the minister, Ibrahim Jalloh, Khasnabis said
his task would involve international non-governmental organizations
in developing the prosthetic and orthotics policy. Khasnabis said this
would ensure that every disabled person gets artificial limbs, calipers,
crutches, as well as splints for polio and spinal cord injuries that
would help make them productive citizens. Beneficiaries will get instruction
on a wide range of skills such as farming, carpentry and tailoring.
The programme would also enable disabled children to go to school.
The USAID funded project is being supported by WHO, SLENA reported.
Jalloh has already received US $130,000 from DHL for a war orthopaedic
and prosthetic building project in Murray Town, a western neighbourhood
of Freetown.
At least 5,000 Sierra Leoneans have had their limbs hacked off by fighters
of the Revolutionary United Front that has waged an 11-year war against
the state.
The full text of the article can be found at http://allafrica.com/stories/200103130434.html
* allafrica.com archive accessible by paid subscription only *
12th March 2001
Polio Survivors in the News: Orphans Give Fond Farewell to Man Who Gave
Them Hope.
The LA Times (http://www.latimes.com/) carried
the following article by Bob Pool, Times Staff Writer:
He was the dad they never had -- the man who for 42 years could be
counted on to wipe away the tears and prop up the self-esteem of children
passing through Los Angeles' first privately run orphanage.
No wonder the hugs were so heartfelt and the thanks so sincere Sunday
as former residents and colleagues returned to the Hollygrove Children's
Home to say goodbye to Bob Morgan.
Starting in 1958 as a recreation leader, Morgan worked his way from
the playground to the front office, where he was assistant executive
director at the 121-year-old children's refuge. Along the way he helped
nearly 5,000 children grow into adulthood and helped the orphanage mature
into a modern therapeutic treatment center for troubled youths.
Morgan, 64, is retiring with his wife, Glenda, to Morro Bay -- a place
that for years was an annual camping-trip destination of Hollygrove's
orphans.
Sunday's farewell was staged at the home's longtime El Centro Avenue
location, and it was emotional.
"Bob Morgan is the only tangible connection to male integrity I can
recall from childhood," acknowledged Chris Curtis, a 53-year-old videographer
from Chico who lived five years at Hollygrove after being abandoned
by his father at age 8.
"Bob gave us back something that we had been robbed of. You probably
can't understand the magnitude of being accepted as a human being by
someone like him. He'd look you in your little eyes and put his hand
on your shoulder and you knew you had a place here and weren't just
somebody else's throwaway."
Fred Delgado, now 50 and an emergency medicine physician in Folsom,
said the lessons he learned from Morgan have benefited him all of his
life.
"He was kind of a father figure and an older brother at the same time,"
said Delgado, who was 7 when he entered the orphanage. He lived there
from 1958 to 1962.
"Bob gave you a sense of belonging in this world. He gave me a positive
sense of who I could be. He'd talk about my future and say I had to
eat right and live right and have good thoughts because they would help
me in my future years," Delgado said.
"He was so good with me that I decided I wanted to be like him when
I had kids. It worked. I have three and they are adults now, and they
turned out fine."
Some of Morgan's young charges may have been grown-ups before they
fully appreciated what he did for them, said Fred Valdez, who was a
troubled, fatherless 8-year-old when his mother placed him at Hollygrove
in 1973.
Now 35 and a Washington, D.C., lawyer, he said Morgan taught him values
and social skills.
"I learned some basic things for the first time. Like how to sit at
the table and eat with good manners, how to say you're sorry. How to
interact with others in your environment in an orderly fashion," Valdez
said. "As simple as it sounds, things like that are not what every child
is always taught."
About 150 former Hollygrove residents and employees attended Sunday's
reception -- some coming from as far away as Connecticut. They swapped
stories of the outings Morgan organized, of the Hollygrove Scout groups
he ran and of how he would shield children from trouble if they did
something like break a window while playing ball.
The crowd understood when David Vargas, now 29 and a Hollywood film
production assistant, explained how Morgan stepped forward in unexpected
ways.
As a 7-year-old, Vargas had been placed in Hollygrove when his heroin-addicted
mother disappeared. He lived there for five years and was there when
his mother was found murdered.
"Bob went out of his way to set up a funeral for her at Hollywood Presbyterian
Church and then bury her," Vargas said. "She didn't have any kin other
than me. If it wasn't for Bob, my mother would have died as a 'Jane
Doe.' "
A poem by Hollygrove employee Amy Solorio thanked Morgan for "never
abandoning" the generations of children and for never giving up trying
to make them feel "like other kids."
Morgan acknowledged that his earliest days at the orphanage weren't
easy. Before the concept of orphanages changed in the 1970s and Hollygrove
-- a nonprofit facility -- developed into more of a center for troubled
children, many residents indeed were abandoned youngsters. It was opened
in 1880 by two women who founded the Los Angeles Orphans Home Society
and began taking in homeless children off the street in a horse-drawn
carriage.
Morgan recalled being shocked when as a 22-year-old college student
he learned there was an orphanage in the middle of Hollywood.
The idea that some children had no family had troubled him since his
own childhood. Morgan had been hospitalized for three years with polio
and he had seen several fellow polio patients -- some in iron lungs
-- abandoned by their parents. He never forgot their sadness.
So when he visited Hollygrove, "I was just stunned. There were these
young, little children who should have had a mother and father like
children from regular families. I was overwhelmed. I knew this is what
I had to do. This is where I had to help."
Although he was studying elementary education in college and had worked
as a camp counselor and as a church Sunday school teacher, Morgan said
he was unprepared at first for orphanage work.
"I remember getting down on my knees and crying and praying for some
of these kids," he said.
In the early days, young Morgan was the only male presence at Hollygrove,
except for the gardener and the janitors. "The kids were watching me
very carefully," he said. "They needed a firm hand, but they didn't
need mishandling or abuse."
Hollygrove Executive Director Judy Nelson praised Morgan for helping
the home evolve from a residential center -- Norma Jean Baker's aunt
placed her there from 1935 to 1937, before she became Marilyn Monroe
-- into a modern therapeutic-care facility. Its 68 current preteen residents
have been placed there by the courts and include some born addicted
to drugs or victims of parental abuse.
Tom Tandy, a retired Sun Valley telephone company worker who met Morgan
while repairing phones at Hollygrove in the 1960s and ended up volunteering
for 17 years to portray Santa Claus for the orphanage, said Sunday that
Morgan's mark on the place runs deep.
"Bob's the best man I've ever met," he said simply.
The full text of the article can be found at http://www.latimes.com/news/state/20010312/t000021825.html
10th March 2001
Polio Virus Eradication: Experts See Global Polio Eradication by 2005.
Yahoo Daily News (http://dailynews.yahoo.com/)
carried the following Reuters report by Irene Marushko from Ottawa on
Friday March 9 10:20 AM ET:
Global eradication of polio is within reach and achievable by 2005,
an expert on the crippling disease told a conference on Thursday.
"It would be quite a remarkable opportunity to declare the world polio-free
in 2005," said Dr. Steve Cochi, director of the division dealing with
vaccine preventable diseases at the US Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention in Atlanta.
He told the Ottawa conference that the last case of poliomyelitis,
a highly infectious viral disease that can lead to permanent paralysis
or death, could be reported as early as 2002.
"It's a feasible target, but it's a challenging target," he told a
polio symposium, sponsored by the Canadian Public Health Association,
the world's largest vaccine maker Aventis Pasteur Ltd., and the Canadian
International Development Agency.
The targets have been set out under a 1988 program called the Global
Polio Eradication Initiative, which involves mass campaigns of immunization
to reach the "Endgame" stage -- the ability to cease vaccinations altogether
because the disease has disappeared.
Cochi said it may be possible to stop polio vaccination, currently
delivered orally or by injection, by 2010.
The disease has largely been eradicated from the western hemisphere,
except for cases in the Dominican Republic and Haiti discovered last
year.
He said the disease is mostly found in east Asian countries and sub-Saharan
Africa, with conflict-ridden countries like Somalia, Congo, Angola,
Sudan and Sierra Leone.
About $450 million will be needed over the next five years to do the
job, he said, adding a fund-raising program has been launched by the
international Rotary Club and the United Nations Foundation.
The Canadian government donated C$10 million ($6.45 million) to the
initiative during the conference.
Cochi said India has made good headway at eradication, with only 258
cases reported in 2000, compared with 1,934 in 1998.
Pakistan, considered one of the world's largest remaining reservoirs
of the wild polio virus, launched an eradication program last month,
and Egypt may soon declare success after a 17-year fight.
The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) last month said it planned
to vaccinate 330,000 young children in rebel-held districts of war-torn
Sierra Leone.
The full text of the article can be found at http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20010309/hl/polio_1.html
See also NewsBites 9th March 2001 "Polio Virus
Eradication: Canada contributes $10 million to program to eradicate world
polio"
and
NewsBites 7th March 2001 Polio Virus Eradication:
Ottawa Polio Symposium.
For Polio Vaccine related resources see our directory Polio
Virus, Vaccine and Eradication
Madam takes her final bow.
BBC News Online (http://news.bbc.co.uk/) reports
on Thursday, 8 March, 2001, 13:45 GMT, the death of Dame Ninette de Valois
at the age of 102 at her home in London:
To Dame Ninette de Valois, the Royal Ballet owes its place in the dance
world's pecking order, and Covent Garden its role in the cultural merry-go-round.
Her tenacity in pursuit of an original vision, undertaken often in
the face of chronic ill health, enabled her to accomplish what many
at the time considered impossible.
She founded the Royal Ballet, the Birmingham Royal Ballet and the Royal
Ballet School.
To her qualities as an administrator and teacher of genius, she added
a kindliness and a concern for the personal well-being of her dancers
which ensured her the utmost respect of the Company.
She was born Edris Stannus of Anglo-Irish parents in County Wicklow
in 1898, adopting her professional name from an ancestor who had married
into a French family. But to most people in the world of ballet she
was known simply as Madam.
Ninette de Valois was a leading dancer in London before joining Diaghilev's
Ballet Russe in 1923. The two years she spent with the company formed
her tastes, taught her many lessons and set firm her resolve to form
a British company.
She gave up dancing herself while still young after discovering she
had been suffering for years from polio. Instead, she threw her energy
into her own dance academy.
Starting with just six dancers, it was to find a home at the Old Vic
and Covent Garden.
Her association with the Old Vic resulted in her winning the whole-hearted
support of its director, Lillian Baylis, for the idea of creating a
national ballet within that organisation, and when the Sadlers Wells
Theatre in north London was rebuilt, accommodation for a ballet school
was included.
Ninette de Valois choreographed more than 100 works, including one
acknowledged masterpiece called Job which has been described as the
first completely English ballet.
Under her firm direction, British dancers gained international renown.
After the war, Ninette de Valois was appointed a Dame of the British
Empire and five years later, her company was granted a royal charter.
One of her last, and most controversial decisions, before she retired
from the directorship of the Royal Ballet in 1963, was to invite the
Russian dancer, Rudolf Nureyev, to appear with the company.
She could be autocratic, and she was helped by many collaborators such
as Constance Lambert, Frederick Ashton and Dame Margot Fonteyn.
But few would dispute that it was the vision, determination and creative
genius of Ninette de Valois that established the tradition of ballet
in Britain.
The full text of the article can be found at http://news6.thdo.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/uk/newsid%5F254000/254550.stm
See also:
"Ballet Pioneer de Valois Dies"
By Audrey Woods, Associated Press Writer
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/ap/20010308/wl/obit_de_valois_2.html
FDA Advisory Panel Says No to Combination
Vaccine.
Yahoo Daily News (http://dailynews.yahoo.com/)
carried the following Reuters Health report by Todd Zwillich from Bethesda,
Md., on Thursday March 8 10:17 AM ET:
A closely divided advisory panel to the US Food and Drug Administration
(FDA) voted on Wednesday that the agency should not approve GlaxoSmithKline's
Infanrix DTaP-Hepatitis B-IPV combination vaccine for infants. Six members
of the Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee voted
no, five voted yes and one abstained. Several members claimed to be
"on the fence" about whether the need for this five-in-one vaccine,
which is manufactured by SmithKline Beecham Biologicals, was strong
enough to override what they perceived as gaps in the company's data.
"In my gut I think that this vaccine is probably fine," Judith D. Goldberg,
director of the division of biostatistics at New York University School
of Medicine, said at the hearing. "I think this is a good vaccine, but
I'm not totally convinced, and I'm not totally comfortable."
GlaxoSmithKline spokeswoman Carmel Hogan said in an interview that
the company remains confident about the safety and efficacy of its combination
vaccine, though she would not comment on whether the company plans further
trials to appease the advisory panel.
"Further discussion needs to take place with the FDA," she said.
Infanrix DTaP-HepB-IPV combines four already approved infant vaccines
with an as-yet unlicensed formulation of inactivated polio vaccine.
Availability of the combination would have cut from 20 to 9 the number
of injections infants need in order to be up-to-date with their immunizations
in the first 18 months of life.
Public health experts place a premium on simplifying the complicated
vaccination schedule as a way to make full immunization easier for parents
and infants.
But several panelists felt that the sponsor's studies -- containing
more than 7,000 patients in the United States and Germany -- were too
small to conclusively support results suggesting that giving the 5-vaccine
combination was just as effective at eliciting an immune response as
giving its components separately. Experts were also troubled because
pivotal trials did not look at how the combination's overall immunogenicity
might be affected by other vaccines on the schedule.
"The lack of any knowledge about how this vaccine will behave when
given with (the pneumococcal vaccine) Prevnar... makes me a little uncomfortable,"
said Pamela S. Diaz, medical director of communicable diseases at the
Chicago Department of Public Health.
The biggest worries stemmed from increased rates of fever in infant
study participants who had received the 5-combination vaccine. In the
company's largest trial, 43% of infants who received the combination
vaccine developed fever within 4 days compared with 26% of infants who
received sequential vaccinations.
"We are collectively concerned about the differential rates of fever,"
said Dr. Robert S. Daum, a University of Chicago professor of pediatrics
and acting chair of the committee.
GlaxoSmithKline also reported seven cases of dangerous seizures unrelated
to fever in treated study participants and none in those who did not
receive the combined vaccine, though the difference was not statistically
significant.
"The pediatrician has to be convinced that this is a safe vaccine and
I don't think that we have those data right now," said Dr. Walter L.
Faggett, a Washington, DC pediatrician.
In the end, several panelists had asked the company to submit a new
efficacy and safety trial with larger numbers and a greater ethnic diversity
of patients. The largest trial in the company's series was performed
in Germany, where more than 96% of the participants were white. Those
numbers had some experts questioning how the vaccine would function
in a more ethnically diverse US population.
"You have to have at least 3,000 more US children in your database
to prove that you have safety and efficacy," said panelist Barbara Fisher,
an activist and co-founder of the National Vaccine Information Center.
The full text of the article can be found at http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20010308/hl/vaccine_1.html
See also NewsBites 7th March 2001 "GlaxoSmithKline
Seeks OK for Vaccine."
For Polio Vaccine related resources see our directory Polio
Virus, Vaccine and Eradication
For Pharmaceutical resources see our Pharmaceutical
directory.
Polio Virus Eradication: Rumours
cripple immunisation in two Bimaru states.
In the Times of India (http://www.timesofindia.com/)
Radhika D Srivastava reports from New Delhi on Friday 9 March 2001:
About 34 per cent of the world's polio cases are in Uttar Pradesh and
Bihar. India as a whole accounts for 40 per cent of the global total.
According to World Health Organisation statistics for 2000, the number
of confirmed polio cases around the globe was 663. Of these, 228 were
in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh. The rest of India had 36 cases.
Authorities now know why the polio eradication programme hasn't worked
too well in these two states. One reason is a host of rumours surrounding
the vaccine. WHO official Satyajit Sarkar said: "There are rumours that
polio drops cause impotence, AIDS, paralysis and even death. Believing
this, parents in these states have stayed away from the immunisation
programme."
Most of these ill-informed parents belong to poor, marginalised sections.
In places where the number of polio cases was high, WHO found that invariably
the rumour mills were strong there.
WHO, along with the Rotary club, is helping out the Union government
in implementing the eradication programme. The target is to certify
India to be polio-free by December, 2005. To get this certificate there
should be no polio case after December, 2002.
Union health and family welfare ministry assistant commissioner (immunisation)
Dr Sobhan Sarkar said other than these baseless rumours there was no
other hurdle. "We are satisfied with the progress of the eradication
programme. According to the latest evaluation, our national immunisation
days are now reaching about 98.5 per cent of the people."
But all is not lost in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh. Despite the fact that
they had the largest number of polio cases in 2000, there was a marked
improvement over the previous year's figures. Dr Sarkar said: "As compared
to 1999, in the year 2000, polio cases in both the states came down.
In Uttar Pradesh, the decline was almost 76 per cent and in Bihar about
65 per cent."
Forty districts in these two states have been identified for a "pre-emptive
mop up". In this programme, every household in these districts will
be visited and all children administered polio drops.
Volunteers associated with the programme believe that people belonging
to a particular community are somehow more likely to believe these rumours.
"Of about 260 confirmed cases last year, as many as 80 cases were reported
from this community," he said. Jama Masjid Shahi Imam Ahmed Bukhari
had made an appeal last year asking everybody to take their children
to polio booths for the vaccination.
Bukhari said on Wednesday: "I was told that after my appeal about 10
per cent more children came for the vaccination. But there are still
some people who are taken in by the rumours and resist vaccination for
their children. The rumours are part of a conspiracy by vested interests.
"I want the people to know that I take my youngest son, who is five-year-old,
for polio drops every time national immunisation days are organised.
Small children of all my relatives also get these drops."
Speaking of some more hurdles, WHO's Sarkar said: "A large number of
children die in India due to malnutrition and other health reasons.
There have been instances when children have died after being given
the vaccine. Each such case was investigated by the government and the
finding was that in no case the polio drops were responsible for the
death."
The full text of the article can be found at http://www.timesofindia.com/today/09indi30.htm
For Polio Vaccine related resources see our directory Polio
Virus, Vaccine and Eradication
Polio Virus Eradication: Canada
contributes $10 million to program to eradicate world polio.
CNEWS (http://www.canoe.ca) reports
from Ottawa on March 8, 2001:
Canada is contributing $10 million to help eradicate polio worldwide.
The money from the Canadian International Development Agency will support
a global polio eradication initiative in developing countries and will
be channelled through the World Health Organization and UNICEF, the
agency said in a statement Thursday.
Polio cases have dropped to about 2,000 worldwide last year from 350,000
in 1988, it said.
Over the past 15 years CIDA has contributed more than $165 million
for immunization efforts in developing countries, the statement said.
The full text of the article can be found at http://www.canoe.ca/NationalTicker/
CANOE-wire.Canada-Polio-Money.html
For Polio Vaccine related resources see our directory Polio
Virus, Vaccine and Eradication
Polio Virus Eradication: Ottawa
Polio Symposium.
Ottawa Citizen Online (http://www.epress.ca/ottawa/)
carried the following video report on Tuesday March 6, 2001:
Special Byte: Ian Stein, Program Coordinator with the International
Section of the Canadian Public Health Association (CPHA), talks to Heidi
Jane about the final stages of Polio eradication and the Polio Symposium.
The symposium on Polio Virus Eradication is apparantly taking place today
(Wednesday) and tomorrow in Ottawa.
GlaxoSmithKline Seeks OK for Vaccine.
Yahoo Daily News (http://dailynews.yahoo.com/)
carried the following Reuters report from Washington on Tuesday March
6 12:36 PM ET:
Drug giant GlaxoSmithKline Plc (http://corp.gsk.com/) (GSK.L)
will ask government advisers on Wednesday to back U.S. approval of a
children's vaccine to prevent five diseases.
The vaccine is designed to prevent diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis,
hepatitis B and polio. If approved by the Food and Drug Administration
(http://www.fda.gov/) (FDA), the vaccine
could reduce the number of shots for infants by combining protection
against several illnesses into a single vaccine given in three doses.
GlaxoSmithKline is set to present data on the new vaccine's safety
and effectiveness to an FDA advisory panel on Wednesday. The panel is
expected to vote on whether to recommend approval for the product, and
the FDA usually follows its panels' advice. In clinical studies, the
vaccine appeared equally as safe as giving currently marketed vaccines
separately, the company said in documents posted on the FDA Web site
on Tuesday.
"The vaccine is well-tolerated and is at least as safe as the individual
routinely administered U.S.-licensed vaccines," the company said.
GlaxoSmithKline plans to sell the vaccine under the brand name Infanrix
DTPa-HepB-IPV. The company now sells a vaccine called Infanrix that
prevents diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis, or whooping cough.
GlaxoSmithKline is the world's largest drug firm by sales.
The full text of the article can be found at http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20010306/
bs/glaxosmithkline_vaccine_dc_1.html
The FDA web site documents referred to in the report are as follows:
See also NewsBites 16th July 1999
"SmithKline Beecham submits new combination vaccine to US FDA for approval.."
For Polio Vaccine related resources see our directory Polio
Virus, Vaccine and Eradication
For Pharmaceutical resources see our Pharmaceutical
directory.
Press Release: Historic Reunion
Slated For FDR's Warm Springs.
WARM SPRINGS, Ga. -- History, nostalgia and plenty of emotion should
all be on display in Warm Springs, Ga., this spring when polio survivors,
former patients and children of the 1930s, '40s and '50s stricken with
the dreaded disease before the Salk Vaccine, return to the Roosevelt
Institute for a unique reunion that will bring together old comrades,
most of whom haven't seen each other in 40 or 50 years.
Theirs was a shared struggle of multiple operations, constant therapy
and the dispelling of many preconceived notions as they battled for
personal independence. What they overcame established a legacy of fulfillment
and something they still refer to as "The Spirit of Warm Springs."
Their reunion is slated for April 11-14 and will include the annual
April 12 observance of Franklin Delano Roosevelt's death at the Little
White House. It will also coincide with continued efforts to eradicate
polio worldwide, something that is getting closer and closer to reality,
thanks to the international cooperation of organizations like the CDC,
Rotary International and the UN Foundation.
Fulfilling FDR's stated and written vision, the Roosevelt Warm Springs
Institute for Rehabilitation is now "a vast establishment with hundreds
of people" and "one of the world's best places for "results, both to
the body and the spirit." It's a state-managed, comprehensive rehabilitation
facility, specializing in both medical and vocational rehabilitation
and home to such things as the International Roosevelt Cup, which matches
the world's best wheelchair athletes in track, basketball and tennis
competition; the first Euro-American rehab consortium, benefiting rehabilitation
on both sides of the Atlantic; and a chain of outpatient clinics that
makes convenient therapy available to people throughout the Atlanta
metropolitan area.
When FDR first came here in 1924 as an influential New Yorker and former
assistant secretary of the Navy, it was a resort for the regionally
rich and famous, a place that "well-knowns" like Henry Clay and John
C. Calhoun had even enjoyed before the Civil War. As the story goes,
Roosevelt was desperate for anything that might help him regain the
use of his legs, which had been ravaged by the effects of polio three
years earlier, and he had heard through a friend about a young man with
polio who had enjoyed similar results after exercising over a series
of months in the mineral-laden, 88-degree water that flows constantly
at over 900 gallons per minute.
By 1927, convinced of the curative effects of the aquatic therapy he
was undergoing, Roosevelt took two thirds of his personal wealth, purchased
the place (over 900 acres) and turned it into a world renowned polio
treatment center. It's a place he would visit 41 times before his death
in 1945 . . . a serene place he came while serving as Governor of New
York; while running for President four times; while combating the Great
Depression; while leading the country through World War II; and while
actually planning The United Nations.
In those days it was known as the Warm Springs Foundation and polio
patients from all over the country and world found their way to this
little West Georgia train stop at the foot of Pine Mountain (elev. 1400
ft.), the southernmost outcropping of the Appalachian Mountains. Throughout
World War II, soldiers who contracted polio in various theaters of the
war were also brought here with their own stories to tell.
It was home base for The March of Dimes and a growing cadre' of doctors,
scientists and philanthropists (not to mention hundreds of therapists),
all seeking solutions to a disease whose ever- expanding spread has
been compared to that of AIDS in our own times. That solution proved
to be the Salk Vaccine in 1954, which gradually led the Roosevelt Institute
away from polio treatment to other types of rehabilitation.
Still, history and healthcare have always mixed well here and that
should never be more evident than when these former polio patients gather
this spring. For the most part, they will include people in their 50s,
60s, 70s and possibly even 80s, many of whom won't have a better chance
to revisit a place that meant so much to themselves and so many like
them. It should be an opportunity to rekindle intense feelings among
people who have undergone so much and have so much in common.
Obviously, reaching all of them after half a century requires extensive
assistance. Records do exist, but none of those from the first half
of the 20th Century possess the thoroughness now attainable via computers
and much was also lost in the transition to the computer age. Remember,
most were children during their Warm Springs years, so addresses have
changed many times and often names or identities are no longer the same.
They, their families or friends are asked to call Carolyn Moreland,
Director of Continuing Education at the Roosevelt Institute at 706/655-5233
or contact her by e-mail at cmmoreland@dhr.state.ga.us.
What's needed are names and addresses plus the approximate time they
were Warm Springs polio (or post-polio) patients. If deceased, their
surviving family members are encouraged to take part in honor of their
late relative's memory.
If unable to reach Ms. Moreland at the above number or by e-mail, alumni
may call 706/655-5000, the main number for the Roosevelt Warm Springs
Institute for Rehabilitation. Post-polio groups all across the country
are being contacted and current plans call for over 500 previously reported
RWSIR polio patients to be contacted.
#RWSIR#
Contact:
Martin Harmon
RWSIR Public Relations
706/655-5668
fmharmon@dhr.state.ga.us
Additional information can be found in our World-Wide Conference and
Seminar Diary Card #0021.
See also
NewsBites 27th January 2001 "Reuniting
survivors of the summer plague."
NewsBites 27th June 2000 "Atlanta
Journal Constitution features Post-Polio and Warm Springs."
Polio Virus Eradication: Polio can
be eradicated, says WHO chief.
The Boston Globe (http://www.boston.com/) carried
the following Reuters report from Islamabad, Pakistan, on February 28th,
2001:
The chief of the World Health Organization, Gro Harlem Brundtland,
poured polio vaccine into the mouths of four children yesterday to launch
a crucial drive to stamp out the crippling disease.
"Pakistan is key to eradicating polio worldwide, because it is part
of the largest remaining reservoir of wild polio virus in South Asia,"
Brundtland, director-general of the WHO and former prime minister of
Norway, told villagers outside Islamabad.
She said Pakistan's program to eradicate polio had made tremendous
progress in 2000.
However, she noted that the disease is still transmitted more widely
there than in the other countries of South Asia. This is partly because
refugees from war-shattered Afghanistan flee to Pakistan, Bruntland
told reporters.
But with an effort, the situation could be changed, she said. "Polio
virus circulation must be interrupted globally in the next 12 to 24
months to certify the world polio-free by 2005, so that no child need
ever suffer from this crippling, vaccine-preventable disease."
Polio could be the second disease to be eradicated, after the world
was declared smallpox-free two decades ago, she said.
"Along with Afghanistan, Bangladesh, India, and Pakistan in South Asia,
the virus circulates in West and Central Africa, most intensely in conflict-affected
areas," she said.
This story ran on page A14 of the Boston Globe on 2/28/2001. The full
text of the article can be found at http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/059/nation/
Polio_can_be_eradicated_says_WHO_chief+.shtml
For Polio virus eradication and vaccine related resources see our directory
Polio Virus, Vaccine and Eradication
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