Clinically diagnosed poliomyelitis in a presumably vaccinated population

Vaccination against poliomyelitis has been compulsory all over Egypt since 1968. Therefore, it is presumed that all infants and children below six years have already been vaccinated. This study is planned to estimate the magnitude of paralytic poliomyelitis in Egypt after six years compulsory vaccination. The cases studied were investigated with regard to socioeconomic status and history and place of vaccination, association of vomiting and diarrhoea or breast feeding within two hours of vaccination, and blood grouping. These results were compared with those of a control group of non-paralytic cases chosen at random from patients who visited the same hospital. Samples of the vaccine were collected from different centres in which children received vaccination and were titrated to estimate their potency at Agouza Laboratories for Vaccines and Sera. The results revealed that still we have a high incidence of poliomyelitis viz : 985/100,000 out-patients, also males are more affected than females with sex ratio 3:2. Of the paralytic cases 22% had proper vaccination while improper vaccination was found in 78%. There was predominance of blood group O among the paralytic cases. The detailed results and discussion of paralytic cases compared to the control has been also fulfilled. Tiltration of the vaccine revealed a lower than the accepted standard indicating altered potency.