Posts tagged International travel

Why Polio immunisation is a must

Neena Bhandari speaks to SBS Hindi

“Polio still poses a threat because of the nature of global travel, any under-vaccinated area could potentially be at risk even in countries like Australia where polio has long since been eradicated…..Polio is only a flight away because there is a pool of unvaccinated people in Australia.”

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Polio never far away in the jet age

By Neena Bhandari

Sydney, 28.07.2007 (The Australian): On a sweltering February day in 1951, one-year-old Maura Outterside’s tiny body was gripped by high fever and muscle pain. As she became non-responsive, her parents wrapped her in cold towels and took her to St George Hospital in Sydney. A lumbar puncture confirmed every parent’s worst nightmare in those days — poliomyelitis, the viral disease responsible for crippling hundreds of thousands of children during the 20th century. Polio epidemics from 1930 to 1970 afflicted 40,000 Australians, including media tycoon Kerry Packer, talkback radio host John Laws and former Labor leader Kim Beazley.

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