ROANOKE TIMES  
                      Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times

DATE: Friday, June 21, 1996                  TAG: 9606210039
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL   PAGE: A-1  EDITION: METRO  
DATELINE: ATLANTA
SOURCE: Associated Press
NOTE: Strip
MEMO: ***CORRECTION***
      Published correction ran on June 22, 1996.
         In a story about a recommended change in the way polio vaccines are 
      administered, The Associated Press erroneously reported Thursday that an
      injectable form of the vaccine is weaker than the oral vaccine currently
      given.
         The injectable vaccine, which is made from killed polio virus, 
      provides children the same level of immunity against the virus as the 
      oral vaccine, which is made from live virus.
         However, only oral vaccine prevents recipients from harboring and 
      spreading the virus if they come in contact with it after they are 
      vaccinated.
         A government advisory panel wants children to begin with two 
      injections and then have the oral vaccine. That schedule is desined to 
      reduce the minscule risk that the oral vaccine, when administered alone,
      will give children polio.

PANEL RECOMMENDS CHANGES FOR COMBATING POLIO

FOR 35 YEARS, Sabin's oral polio vaccine has been administered to children. An average of eight children per 4 million contract the debilitating disease from the vaccine.

A federal advisory panel has recommended the first major changes in the way the polio vaccine is administered since baby boomers began getting their doses on sugar cubes in 1961.

The panel decided Thursday that infants should get two shots of a weaker version of the vaccine before being given the more potent oral dose. The goal is to reduce the risk that the vaccine itself will give children polio.

The recommendation is subject to final approval from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and doctors would not be advised to follow it until 1997.

``This is a major change. We have not made any changes like this since the 1960s,'' said Dr. Walter Orenstein, director of the CDC's National Immunization Program.

The oral vaccine, which is made from live but weakened polio virus and is currently recommended by the CDC, causes an average of eight cases of the paralyzing disease a year, out of 4 million doses given.

Giving infants polio shots before administering the oral vaccine could boost their immunity to the virus.

Last fall, the advisory panel tentatively decided to adopt the new recommendation. But lobbying by patients, vaccine manufacturers and medical associations led the committee to delay a final decision and hear more public comment.

Opponents of the change say parents wary of giving infants shots may skip the vaccine, causing a resurgence of polio in the United States.

``It's not clear that the [change] is going to stop many of the cases that still occur, but it could make a mess of the immunization program,'' said Dr. Peter Paradiso, scientific director for vaccine manufacturer Wyeth-Lederle.

Paradiso is concerned that infants would still be vulnerable to contracting polio from the oral doses.

Those who support the change say eight cases of polio a year is still too many.

Under the new guidelines, infants would be injected with a vaccine made from killed polio virus twice within their first four months. The shots would replace two doses of the more potent oral vaccine. Two oral doses between ages 1 and 6 would still be recommended.

The injections, which carry no risk of polio, use a stronger version of the first polio vaccine developed in 1955 by Dr. Jonas Salk. Dr. Albert Sabin's oral vaccine, made from weakened virus, began to replace Salk's injections in 1961.

The CDC agreed not to abandon the oral vaccine altogether at the urging of the World Health Organization, which is trying to eradicate polio worldwide by 2000.

Both vaccines increase immunity from polio, but only the oral vaccine prevents the recipient from carrying and possibly spreading the virus.

LENGTH: Medium:   84 lines
ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO:  AP. Randy Pierson holds his son, Gordon, at the Centers 
          for Disease Control and Prevention's advisory committee hearing on  
          immunization practices Wednesday in Atlanta. Gordon was afflicted  
          with paralyzing polio after receiving immunizations as an infant.  
          color.