Another Vaccine Success, Case In Point, Poliomyelitis or Polio Eradication.

As a small child who traveled the world due to my parents work, I received the Polio vaccine a multiple times, all before the timelines indicated below. If I am not mistaken, the last one was a drop of liquid from a vial, under my tongue. I have seen many people affected by Polio as well and thought, why did not their parents give them the vaccine?

There is no cure for polio, it can only be prevented. Polio vaccine, given multiple times, can protect a child for life. Polio mainly affects children under 5 years of age. so early vaccination is a must and multiple recommended dozes.
There are two types of vaccine that can prevent polio: inactivated poliovirus vaccine (IPV) and oral poliovirus vaccine (OPV). Only IPV has been used in the United States since 2000; OPV is still used throughout much of the world.

Wild poliovirus cases have decreased by over 99% since 1988, from an estimated 350 000 cases in more than 125 endemic countries then, to 33 (1) reported cases in 2018.
Of the 3 strains of wild poliovirus (type 1, type 2, and type 3), wild poliovirus type 2 was eradicated in 1999 and no case of wild poliovirus type 3 has been found since the last reported case in Nigeria in November 2012.
 

Once polio is eradicated, the world can celebrate the delivery of a major global public good that will benefit all people equally, no matter where they live. Economic modelling has found that the eradication of polio would save at least US$ 40–50 billion, mostly in low-income countries. Most importantly, success will mean that no child will ever again suffer the terrible effects of lifelong polio-paralysis.

• Polio (poliomyelitis) mainly affects children under 5 years of age.
• 1 in 200 infections leads to irreversible paralysis. Among those paralysed, 5% to 10% die when their breathing muscles become immobilized.
• Cases due to wild poliovirus have decreased by over 99% since 1988, from an estimated 350 000 cases then, to 33 (1) reported cases in 2018.
• As long as a single child remains infected, children in all countries are at risk of contracting polio. Failure to eradicate polio from these last remaining strongholds could result in as many as 200 000 new cases every year, within 10 years, all over the world.
• In most countries, the global effort has expanded capacities to tackle other infectious diseases by building effective surveillance and immunization systems.

Symptoms

Polio is a highly infectious disease caused by a virus. It invades the nervous system, and can cause total paralysis in a matter of hours. The virus is transmitted by person-to-person spread mainly through the faecal-oral route or, less frequently, by a common vehicle (for example, contaminated water or food) and multiplies in the intestine. Initial symptoms are fever, fatigue, headache, vomiting, stiffness of the neck and pain in the limbs. 1 in 200 infections leads to irreversible paralysis (usually in the legs). Among those paralysed, 5% to 10% die when their breathing muscles become immobilized.

Poliomyelitis Polio

WHO

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