India Virtually Eliminates Tetanus as a Killer

A year after eliminating polio, India has scored another public health victory. Following a 15-year campaign, the country has virtually eliminated tetanus as a killer of newborns and mothers.

Tetanus, caused by a bacterium common in soil and animal dung, usually infects newborns when the umbilical cord is cut with a dirty blade. Mothers often receive the infection by giving birth on dirty surfaces or being aided by midwives with unwashed hands.

The disease — also known as lockjaw, after its muscle spasms — usually sets in about a week after a birth and is invariably fatal if not promptly treated. Fifteen years ago, the World Health Organization estimated that almost 800,000 newborns died of tetanus each year; now fewer than 50,000 do.

But the effort to reduce tetanus has gone slowly. The World Health Assembly — the annual gathering of the world’s health ministers in Geneva — originally set 1995 as the target date for global elimination as a health threat.

www.nytimes.com...

Great work, India! Just goes to show what good a public health and immunisation drive can do. It's worth noting, as the article highlights, that as there are non-human reservoirs for the bacteria, it can never be eradicated, so such drives are important to reducing the unnecessary suffering and deaths from diseases that modern health care can prevent.

India is doing pretty good nowadays. Reduced poverty by half in the last 15-20 years. That by itself can reduce many diseases.

Sri Lanka also eradicated malaria by the way.

a reply to: GetHyped

The great polio deception in India. Coming to the US next?

Polio was "eradicated" by changing the name to NPAFP. Clinically indistinguishable and trice as deadly. You can fool most people most of the time. People are starting to wake up. That's why they are paying politicians to make vaccinations mandatory.

The US is #1 in vaccines and last place in childhood mortality..

Dump the pill pushers and hypes.
Dump the shills and their transparent tactics.

originally posted by: asen_y2k
India is doing pretty good nowadays. Reduced poverty by half in the last 15-20 years.

That depends on your definition of poverty.

originally posted by: InverseLookingGlass
a reply to: GetHyped

The great polio deception in India. Coming to the US next?

Polio was "eradicated" by changing the name to NPAFP. Clinically indistinguishable and trice as deadly. You can fool most people most of the time. People are starting to wake up. That's why they are paying politicians to make vaccinations mandatory.

A 3 year old paper with no follow up published in a non peer-reviewed journal.

Cherry pick much?

The US is #1 in vaccines and last place in childhood mortality..

Dump the pill pushers and hypes.
Dump the shills and their transparent tactics.

Not only is this utterly off-topic but it's been debunked here:

Before we get to the study itself–which, as you might imagine, has…flaws–let’s take a look at the authors. The first author, Neil Z. Miller, is described as an “independent researcher,” and the second author, Gary S. Goldman, is described as an “independent computer scientist.” This is not a promising start, as neither of them appear to have any qualifications that would lead a reader to think that they have any special expertise in epidemiology, vaccines, or science. Still, I suppose one could look at the fact that these two somehow managed to get a paper published in a peer-reviewed journal as being pretty strong evidence for the democratic nature of science, where you don’t necessarily have to be affiliated with a university or a biotech or pharmaceutical company in order to publish in the scientific literature. On the other hand, even though it is stated that this was not funded by any grants or companies, I still see a conflict of interest. Specifically, the NaturalNews.com article points out that the “National Vaccine Information Center (NVIC) donated $2500 and Michael Belkin donated $500 (in memory of his daughter, Lyla) for open access to the journal article (making it freely available to all researchers).” The NVIC, as you recall, was founded by Barbara Loe Fisher and is one of the oldest and most influential anti-vaccine groups in the U.S., having recently teamed up with Joe Mercola to promote anti-vaccine views through ads on a JumboTron at Times Square. Michael Belkin, you might also recall, is the man responsible for The Refusers, a one man anti-vaccine rock act best known for execrably bad songs with risible titles like “Vaccine Gestapo” and “Get Your Mandates Out of My Body.”

No, definitely not a promising start.

scienceblogs.com...

Why do you always cherry pick crappy studies and ignore all of the studies that people have presented to you countless times before that refute your tired arguments?

originally posted by: Thecakeisalie

originally posted by: asen_y2k
India is doing pretty good nowadays. Reduced poverty by half in the last 15-20 years.

That depends on your definition of poverty.

I beleive its the UN's definition. I am hardly in a position to make such definitons.

Its good to hear for sure but their health system is a ticking timebomb waiting to knock on all our doors, in a way.

They allow the use of anti biotics; no need for a prescription in reality as they fail to clamp down on the sellers,;to a point where resistance is accelerating. They need to heavily invest in public sanitation. Something like 1 in 3 or 1 in 7 have access to a proper toilet with a sewer.

a reply to: GetHyped

Scienceblogs is your channel for truth? They are known shills. I'm not timid about it. Why should I be. The premise that newer studies are always better is false. Why to shills always go to that? The opposite is true when Pharma has completely co-opted the research channels.

We are meat in Pharma's grinder. Time is growing short.

Enterovirus. Same genus as the polio virus. Outbreak in US only among the vaccinated.

Ideas so good, they have to be mandatory.

a reply to: InverseLookingGlass

All you ever do is post lies, drag threads off-topic and call people who don't agree with you "shills". You're like a broken record.

"India Virtually Eliminates Tetanus as a Killer"

That is the topic.

Do you have anything on-topic to say?

a reply to: GetHyped

Well done, India! A combination of vaccines and clean deliveries are saving lives! I remember reading that a few decades ago up to 200,000 babies used to die due to tetanus, and it is a horrendous death. This is great news, evidence of the benefits of education as ignorance is what still kills people in some countries where people refuse vaccination.

originally posted by: InverseLookingGlass

Polio was "eradicated" by changing the name to NPAFP. Clinically indistinguishable and trice as deadly. .

Polio is still called Polio. NPAFP is NOT Polio. NPAFP is NON-POLIO acute flaccid paralysis which is caused by NON- POLIO enteroviruses.

If Polio was the cause then we would see millions if not billions of cases around the world, and we don't.

originally posted by: InverseLookingGlass
a reply to: GetHyped

The great polio deception in India. Coming to the US next?

Polio was "eradicated" by changing the name to NPAFP. Clinically indistinguishable and trice as deadly. You can fool most people most of the time. People are starting to wake up. That's why they are paying politicians to make vaccinations mandatory.

The US is #1 in vaccines and last place in childhood mortality..

Dump the pill pushers and hypes.
Dump the shills and their transparent tactics.

A couple of things, firstly the polio vaccine used in India is of the oral type. That's not used in the US and hasn't been for quite a few years.
Secondly, the author in your link suggests that there were 48,000 cases in 2011 yet he's using historical data from the years 2000 until 2010.
Quite strange.
jacob.puliyel.com...

As for your second link...I'm sure if the great Neil Z Miller performed a statistical regression module comparing infant mortality against the number of TV sets owned per household in the world that the US would top that too.
So I'm struggling to understand what can be gained from his "study", from a scientific perspective anyway.
You don't think he's being deliberately dishonest about something do you?
(Just in case readers don't know who Neil Z Miller is, he's a journalist who runs the "Think Twice Global Vaccine Institute". Now I'm not exactly sure what this is an institute of but you can buy his books from it...).

What was that about shills again?

originally posted by: GetHyped

originally posted by: InverseLookingGlass
a reply to: GetHyped

The great polio deception in India. Coming to the US next?

Polio was "eradicated" by changing the name to NPAFP. Clinically indistinguishable and trice as deadly. You can fool most people most of the time. People are starting to wake up. That's why they are paying politicians to make vaccinations mandatory.

A 3 year old paper with no follow up published in a non peer-reviewed journal.

Cherry pick much?

The US is #1 in vaccines and last place in childhood mortality..

Dump the pill pushers and hypes.
Dump the shills and their transparent tactics.

Not only is this utterly off-topic but it's been debunked here:

Before we get to the study itself–which, as you might imagine, has…flaws–let’s take a look at the authors. The first author, Neil Z. Miller, is described as an “independent researcher,” and the second author, Gary S. Goldman, is described as an “independent computer scientist.” This is not a promising start, as neither of them appear to have any qualifications that would lead a reader to think that they have any special expertise in epidemiology, vaccines, or science. Still, I suppose one could look at the fact that these two somehow managed to get a paper published in a peer-reviewed journal as being pretty strong evidence for the democratic nature of science, where you don’t necessarily have to be affiliated with a university or a biotech or pharmaceutical company in order to publish in the scientific literature. On the other hand, even though it is stated that this was not funded by any grants or companies, I still see a conflict of interest. Specifically, the NaturalNews.com article points out that the “National Vaccine Information Center (NVIC) donated $2500 and Michael Belkin donated $500 (in memory of his daughter, Lyla) for open access to the journal article (making it freely available to all researchers).” The NVIC, as you recall, was founded by Barbara Loe Fisher and is one of the oldest and most influential anti-vaccine groups in the U.S., having recently teamed up with Joe Mercola to promote anti-vaccine views through ads on a JumboTron at Times Square. Michael Belkin, you might also recall, is the man responsible for The Refusers, a one man anti-vaccine rock act best known for execrably bad songs with risible titles like “Vaccine Gestapo” and “Get Your Mandates Out of My Body.”

No, definitely not a promising start.

scienceblogs.com...

Why do you always cherry pick crappy studies and ignore all of the studies that people have presented to you countless times before that refute your tired arguments?

Wow. Did you read it? I could have written that in 9th grade calculus. It is just statistical analysis and the methodology is shown. And it is very surprising. All the data spurces are shown.

So you throw some ad hominems and its done with?

Someone gave them some money after the fact so it must be wrong?

It is a peer reviewed statistical analysis of vaccines versus mortality rate in infants. The math shows a strong correlation. Sorry if it hurts your butt.

originally posted by: InverseLookingGlass
a reply to: GetHyped

Scienceblogs is your channel for truth? They are known shills. I'm not timid about it. Why should I be. The premise that newer studies are always better is false. Why to shills always go to that? The opposite is true when Pharma has completely co-opted the research channels.

We are meat in Pharma's grinder. Time is growing short.

Enterovirus. Same genus as the polio virus. Outbreak in US only among the vaccinated.

Ideas so good, they have to be mandatory.

I suppose the question that should be asked is why you post deliberate misinformation?
I know that you know it's misinformation so why do you do it?
Do you deliberately wish to harm people with your conspiracy fuelled nonsense?

This "mysterious virus currently spreading" (does last year count as current?) is the EV D-68 which is essentially a more virulent member of the virus-family which causes the common cold (or symptoms thereof).
It's been around for quite a long time, in fact it was given a classification in 1962 and sporadic outbreaks of it occur from time to time.
The fact it's only been "found in vaccinated children" is probably due to the fact that the majority of children ARE vaccinated.
You could make exactly the same statement about the rhinovirus (the most common cause of the common cold...).

originally posted by: Pardon?

originally posted by: InverseLookingGlass
a reply to: GetHyped

The great polio deception in India. Coming to the US next?

Polio was "eradicated" by changing the name to NPAFP. Clinically indistinguishable and trice as deadly. You can fool most people most of the time. People are starting to wake up. That's why they are paying politicians to make vaccinations mandatory.

The US is #1 in vaccines and last place in childhood mortality..

Dump the pill pushers and hypes.
Dump the shills and their transparent tactics.

A couple of things, firstly the polio vaccine used in India is of the oral type. That's not used in the US and hasn't been for quite a few years.
Secondly, the author in your link suggests that there were 48,000 cases in 2011 yet he's using historical data from the years 2000 until 2010.
Quite strange.
jacob.puliyel.com...

As for your second link...I'm sure if the great Neil Z Miller performed a statistical regression module comparing infant mortality against the number of TV sets owned per household in the world that the US would top that too.
So I'm struggling to understand what can be gained from his "study", from a scientific perspective anyway.
You don't think he's being deliberately dishonest about something do you?
(Just in case readers don't know who Neil Z Miller is, he's a journalist who runs the "Think Twice Global Vaccine Institute". Now I'm not exactly sure what this is an institute of but you can buy his books from it...).

What was that about shills again?

If probably would. Most americans care more about their screens than what gets injected into their babies.


So why then, is US infant mortality so high. Probably is the TVs, we spend more per baby than anyother country by far, so it cant be all that crap we shoot them up with.

originally posted by: ISawItFirst

originally posted by: Pardon?

originally posted by: InverseLookingGlass
a reply to: GetHyped

The great polio deception in India. Coming to the US next?

Polio was "eradicated" by changing the name to NPAFP. Clinically indistinguishable and trice as deadly. You can fool most people most of the time. People are starting to wake up. That's why they are paying politicians to make vaccinations mandatory.

The US is #1 in vaccines and last place in childhood mortality..

Dump the pill pushers and hypes.
Dump the shills and their transparent tactics.

A couple of things, firstly the polio vaccine used in India is of the oral type. That's not used in the US and hasn't been for quite a few years.
Secondly, the author in your link suggests that there were 48,000 cases in 2011 yet he's using historical data from the years 2000 until 2010.
Quite strange.
jacob.puliyel.com...

As for your second link...I'm sure if the great Neil Z Miller performed a statistical regression module comparing infant mortality against the number of TV sets owned per household in the world that the US would top that too.
So I'm struggling to understand what can be gained from his "study", from a scientific perspective anyway.
You don't think he's being deliberately dishonest about something do you?
(Just in case readers don't know who Neil Z Miller is, he's a journalist who runs the "Think Twice Global Vaccine Institute". Now I'm not exactly sure what this is an institute of but you can buy his books from it...).

What was that about shills again?

If probably would. Most americans care more about their screens than what gets injected into their babies.


So why then, is US infant mortality so high. Probably is the TVs, we spend more per baby than any other country by far, so it cant be all that crap we shoot them up with.

It seems to be linked with economies and relative wealth of individual States as well as individual's socio-economic statuses.
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov...

Whilst it may be true that overall, more money is spent per baby it would seem that not all babies have that money spent on them.
Very much a have and have-not society.