NVIC Press Releases, Statements & Commentaries Related to Polio

NVIC's Polio Commentaries and Video Collection

NVIC Polio Video Playlist

View the collection of video resources within the player below for more information on polio and the polio vaccine.

Hearings, Workshops and NVIC Testimony

• Preventing Another SV40 Tragedy: Are Today's Vaccine Safety Protocols Effective?  US House Government Reform Transcript, Nov 13, 2003
• The SV-40 Virus: Has Tainted Polio Vaccine Caused an Increase in Cancer? US House Government Reform Subcommittee on Human Rights and Wellness: - Sept 10, 2003
• The SV40 Virus: Has Tainted Polio Vaccine Caused An Increase in Cancer? - Barbara Loe Fisher, Sept 10, 2003
• NVIC Statement - Workshop On SV-40: A Possible Human Polyomavirus, Barbara Loe Fisher, Jan 27-28-1997

 NVIC Press Releases

• NVIC Cites Conflict of Interest in Government Report on SV 40 - January 27, 1998  
• Consumer Group Questions Use of Oral Polio Vaccine After Scientist Links Live Viral Vaccine To Sick Gulf War Veterans - March 28, 1996 

The Vaccine Reaction

• TVR Staff Ugandan Boy Dies of Stevens-Johnson Syndrome After Getting Measles-Rubella, Polio Vaccines The Vaccine Reaction 15, 2019
• Fisher BL, Cáceres M Polio Eradication Stalls with More Wild-Type and Vaccine Strain Polio Outbreaks The Vaccine Reaction 7, 2019
• TVR Staff Infant Girl in India Dies Day After Receiving Oral Polio and Pentavalent Vaccines The Vaccine Reaction 11, 2019
• TVR Staff 11 Cases of Polio-like Paralysis Confirmed Before Onset of AFM “Season” The Vaccine Reaction 18, 2019
• Cáceres M “Vaccine-Derived” Polio on the Rise The Vaccine Reaction 17, 2019
• TVR Staff Polio-like Guillain-Barré Syndrome on the Rise in Peru The Vaccine Reaction 27,2019
• TVR Staff Hundreds of Children in Pakistan Hospitalized After Getting Oral Polio Vaccine The Vaccine Reaction May 9, 2019
• Cáceres M Under Siege by Critics, CDC Moves to Blame a Virus for Polio-like Cases of AFM The Vaccine Reaction14, 2018
• Fisher BL OPV Vaccine Plus A Shot of Antibiotics Equals Polio The Vaccine Reaction 31, 2018
• TVR Staff CDC Investigates 155 Cases of ‘Polio-like’ AFM, Confirms 62 The Vaccine Reaction 24, 2018
• TVR Staff ‘Modern Polio’ Cases Confirmed in 16 States The Vaccine Reaction 10, 2018
• TVR Staff Three Infants in Pakistan Die After Receiving Polio Vaccine The Vaccine Reaction May 13, 2018
• Cáceres M Redefining Hypertension: A Redefinition Throwback to Polio The Vaccine Reaction 24, 2018
• Cáceres M How Scientific Was the Identification of the Poliovirus? The Vaccine Reaction 15, 2017
• Raines K A Polio Vaccine Made from Tobacco Leaves? The Vaccine Reaction 4, 2017
• TVR Staff Syrian Children Get Polio from Oral Polio Vaccine The Vaccine Reaction 13, 2017
• TVR Staff Two Children Die After Polio Vaccination, Four in Critical Condition in Pakistan The Vaccine Reaction 27, 2016
• La Vigne P Mysterious Polio-Like Illness Plaguing Children Stumps CDC The Vaccine Reaction 17, 2016
• Fisher BL Oral Polio Vaccine Was Contaminated with Monkey Viruses The Vaccine Reaction 15, 2016
• Cáceres M Bernice Eddy Warned of Defective Salk Polio Vaccine The Vaccine Reaction 23, 2016
• Cáceres M Our Fixation With Polio and Zika The Vaccine Reaction 3, 2016
• Cáceres M Poliovirus and Zika: What’s Past is Prologue The Vaccine Reaction 24, 2016
• Cáceres M Polio Eradication by 2018: A Pipe Dream The Vaccine Reaction Jan 23, 2016
• Cáceres M The Salk Polio Vaccine “Tragedy” The Vaccine Reaction Jan 11, 2016
• Siegel S How the CDC Made 30,000 Polio Diagnoses Disappear The Vaccine Reaction Oct 2, 2015
• Mercola J Getting Polio from the Polio Vaccine The Vaccine Reaction12, 2015
• Cáceres M WHO Reports Two Cases of Vaccine-Derived Poliovirus in Ukraine The Vaccine Reaction 6, 2015
• Cáceres M DDT and the Rise and Fall of Polio The Vaccine Reaction July 22, 2015
• Fisher BL India Still Reporting Cases of Polio-like Acute Flaccid Paralysis The Vaccine Reaction July 9, 2015
• Cáceres M Polio Wasn’t Vanquished, It Was Redefined The Vaccine Reaction July 9, 2015
• Cáceres M The Salk ‘Miracle’ Myth The Vaccine Reaction Jun 2, 2015
• Live Polio Vaccine Voted Out, The Vaccine Reaction Aug 1996

Selected medical literature and resources

• Razum O, Sridhar D, Jahn A et al. Polio: from eradication to systematic, sustained control. BMJ Glob Health. 2019 Aug 20;4(4):e001633
• Berciano J Additional arguments supporting that Franklin Delano Roosevelt's paralytic illness was related to Guillain-Barré syndrome. J Med Biogr. 2018 May;26(2):142-143
• Becker BE Sister Elizabeth Kenny and Polio in America: Doyenne or Demagogue in Her Role in Rehabilitation Medicine? PM R. 2018 Feb;10(2):208-217
• Aghamohammadi A, Abolhassani H, Kutukculer N et al. Patients with Primary Immunodeficiencies Are a Reservoir of Poliovirus and a Risk to Polio Eradication. Front Immunol. 2017 Jun 13;8:685.
• Goldman AS, Schmalstieg EJ, Dreyer CF et al. Franklin Delano Roosevelt's (FDR's) (1882-1945) 1921 neurological disease revisited; the most likely diagnosis remains Guillain-Barré syndrome. J Med Biogr. 2016 Nov;24(4):452-459.
• Parker EPK, Molodecky NA, Pons-Salort M et al. Impact of inactivated poliovirus vaccine on mucosal immunity: implications for the polio eradication endgame Expert Rev Vaccines. 2015 Aug 3; 14(8): 1113–1123.
• Guo J, Bolivar-Wagers S, Srinivas N et al. Immunodeficiency-related vaccine-derived poliovirus (iVDPV) cases: a systematic review and implications for polio eradication. 2015 Mar 3;33(10):1235-42
• Mawdsley SE. Polio provocation: solving a mystery with the help of history. Lancet. 2014 Jul 26;384(9940):300-1.
• Wyatt HV Before the Vaccines: Medical Treatments of Acute Paralysis in the 1916 New York Epidemic of Poliomyelitis Open Microbiol J. 2014; 8: 144–147.
• Vashisht N, Puliyel J. Polio programme: let us declare victory and move on. Indian J Med Ethics. 2012 Apr-Jun;9(2):114-7.
• Wyatt HV The 1916 New York City Epidemic of Poliomyelitis: Where Did the Virus Come From? The Open Vaccine Journal 2011, 4: p13-17
• Juskewitch JE, Tapia CJ, Windebank AJ. Lessons from the Salk polio vaccine: methods for and risks of rapid translation. Clin Transl Sci. 2010 Aug;3(4):182-5.
• Grassly NC, Jafari H, Bahl S et al. Asymptomatic Wild-Type Poliovirus Infection in India among Children with Previous Oral Poliovirus Vaccination. J Infect Dis 2010; 201 (10): 1535-1543.
• Wringe A, Fine PE, Sutter RW, Kew OM. Estimating the extent of vaccine-derived poliovirus infection. PLoS One. 2008;3(10):e3433.
• Puliyel C, Sathyamala C, Banerji D Protective Efficacy of a Monovalent Oral Type 1 Poliovirus Vaccine Lancet 2007 July; 370 (9582): 129
• Sathyamala C Polio Eradication Programme in India Indian J Med Res 2007 May; 125: 695-696
• Rogers N Race and the Politics of Polio Warm Springs, Tuskegee, and the March of Dimes Am J Public Health. 2007 May; 97(5): 784–795.
• Martín J Vaccine-derived poliovirus from long term excretors and the end game of polio eradication. 2006 Jun;34(2):117-22
• Fitzpatrick M The Cutter Incident: How America's First Polio Vaccine Led to a Growing Vaccine Crisis J R Soc Med. 2006 Mar; 99(3): 156.
• Cutrone R, Lednicky J, Dunn G et al Some oral poliovirus vaccines were contaminated with infectious SV40 after 1961. Cancer Res. 2005 Nov 15;65(22):10273-9.
• Vilchez RA, Butel JS Emergent Human Pathogen Simian Virus 40 and Its Role in Cancer Clin Microbiol Rev. 2004 Jul; 17(3): 495–508.
• Goldman AS, Schmalstieg EJ, Freeman DH Jr et al. What was the cause of Franklin Delano Roosevelt's paralytic illness? J Med Biogr.2003 Nov;11(4):232-40.
• Garcea RL, Imperiale MJ. Simian virus 40 infection of humans. J Virol. 2003 May;77(9):5039-45.
• Institute of Medicine (US) Immunization Safety Review Committee Immunization Safety Review: SV40 Contamination of Polio Vaccine and Cancer. Washington (DC): National Academies Press (US); 2002.
• Letter to the Immunization Safety Review Committee, Michael and Raphaele Horwin, Jul 29, 2002
• Kops SP Oral polio vaccine and human cancer: a reassessment of SV40 as a contaminant based upon legal documents. Anticancer Res.2000 Nov-Dec;20(6C):4745-9.
• Marx A, Glass JD, Sutter RW. Differential Diagnoses of Acute Flaccid Paralysis and It’s Role in Poliomyelitis Surveillance. Epidemiologic Reviews 2000; 22(2): 298-316.  
• Gromeier M, Wimmer E. Mechanism of injury-provoked poliomyelitis. J Virol. 1998 Jun;72(6):5056-60.
• Butel JS, Jafar S, Stewart AR, Lednicky JA. Detection of authentic SV40 DNA sequences in human brain and bone tumours. Dev Biol Stand 1998; 94: 23-32.
• Martini F, Lazzarin L, Iaccheri L et al. Simian virus 40 footprints in normal human tissues, brain and bone tumors of different histotypes. Dev Biol Stand 1998; 94: 55-66.
• Simian Virus 40 (SV40), a Possible Human Polyomavirus (Workshop Held at NIH). Emerging Infectious Diseases. 1997;3(2):245-247.
• Carbone M, Rizzo P, Procopio A, et al. SV40-like sequences in human bone tumors. 1996 Aug 1;13(3):527-35.
• Lednicky JA, Garcea RL, Bergsagel DJ, Butel JS. Natural simian virus 40 strains are present in human choroid plexus and ependymoma tumors. 1995 Oct 1;212(2):710-7.
• Strebel PM, Ion-Nedelcu N, Baughman AL Intramuscular injections within 30 days of immunization with oral poliovirus vaccine--a risk factor for vaccine-associated paralytic poliomyelitis. N Engl J Med. 1995 Feb 23;332(8):500-6.
• Vaccine Safety Committee, Institute of Medicine. Polio Vaccines. Adverse Events Associated with Childhood vaccines: Evidence Bearing on Causality. Washington, D.C. National Academies Press 1994. 
• Wyatt HV Injections and poliomyelitis: what are the risks of vaccine associated paralysis? Dev Biol Stand. 1986;65:123-6.
• Ratner H et al. The Present Status of Polio Vaccines Illinois Medical Journal 118, no 2, 3, pp 84-93; pp160-168 Edited from a Panel Discussion presented before the Section on Preventative Medicine and Public Health at the 120^th annual meeting of the Illinois State Medical Society in Chicago, May 26, 1960
• Tonsillectomy and Poliomyelitis Am J Public Health Nations Health. 1954 Aug; 44(8): 1065–1067.
• Greenberg M, Abramson H, Cooper HM, Solomon HE. The relation between recent injections and paralytic poliomyelitis in children. Am J Public Health Nations Health. 1952 Feb;42(2):142-52.
• Siegel M, Greenberg M, Magee MC. Tonsillectomy and poliomyelitis. II. Frequency of bulbar paralysis, 1944-1949. J Pediatr.1951 May;38(5):548-58.
• Horstmann DM. Acute poliomyelitis relation of physical activity at the time of onset to the course of the disease. J Am Med Assoc. 1950 Jan 28;142(4):236-41.
• KLENNER FR. The treatment of poliomyelitis and other virus diseases with vitamin C. South Med Surg. 1949 Jul;111(7):209-14.
• State Department of Public Health INFANTILE PARALYSIS IN VERMONT 1894-1922 The Vermont Printing Company Brattleboro, VT; 1924
• Manning JVV The Correlation of epidemic paralysis in animal and man The Medical Times May 1912 p134-137

Selected Books

• Maready F The moth in the iron lung: a biography of polio. United States: Feels Like Fire.2018
• Humphries S Bystrianyk R Dissolving illusions: disease, vaccines and the forgotten history. United States: CreateSpace, 2015
• Oshinsky, DM. Polio: an American Story. Oxford University Press, 2006.
• Bookchin D, Schumacher J The Virus and the Vaccine – The True Story Of A Cancer-Causing Monkey Virus, Contaminated Polio Vaccine, and the millions of Americans Exposed. Martin’s Press, 2004
• Paul, JR. A History of Poliomyelitis. New Haven, Yale University Press, 1971

IMPORTANT NOTE: NVIC encourages you to become fully informed about Polio and the Polio vaccine by reading all sections in the Table of Contents, which contain many links and resources such as the manufacturer product information inserts, and to speak with one or more trusted health care professionals before making a vaccination decision for yourself or your child. This information is for educational purposes only and is not intended as medical advice.

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