It's the Wednesday 24th of October and more importantly, it's World Polio Day. It was established over 10 years ago by Rotary International. The day commemorates the birth of the scientist, Jonas Salk, who lead the first team to develop a vaccine for Polio. This inactive vaccine was further developed by Albert Sabin. All leading to the establishment of Global Polio Eradication initiative (GPEI) in the year 1988, which by 2013 had reduced polio by 99% (Fantastic!). World Polio day is chance to highlight this horrendous disease and spread awareness of what Polio actually is.
Polio is short for the official name of Poliomyelitis. It is a highly infectious viral disease which mostly affects young children. There are three different types of the wild polio virus (WPV), type 1, 2 and 3. Though in 2013, type 2 was officially eradicated! Plus, Type 2 polio hasn't been recorded since November of 2012. But, there is still type 1.
Polio spreads from the gut, aiming to invade the nervous system and is known to cause paralysis which can happen in 1 out of 200 cases. The infection route is person-to-person spread mostly in the faecal-oral route which means that someone has gone to the bathroom and not washed their hands before eating. Less frequently, another infection route utilised is by what scientist call a vehicle which is basically anything that can carry disease. In terms of polio, these vehicles can be contaminated water or food.
In 90% of cases, there can be none to mild symptoms when polio is present. Therefore, the disease is unrecognised. In the remaining cases the symptoms are mostly non-specific.
Symptoms of Polio
Frequently Asked Questions on Polio (From the WHO website)
Does Polio still exist? Isn't it curable?
Obviously from this post, polio still is in the world. Luckily, there were only 22 reported cases in 2017 which is a dramatic change from 350,000 cases. There is no cure though. Only through vaccines can we eradicate this disease.
What is Vaccine Derived polio?
The vaccines that are taken orally have the abbreviation OPV. These contain a weakened form of the polio virus which tricks the body to think it's attacking the real thing. The weakened form gets to multiply in the intestines of the child while the immune system creates the antibodies needed for polio.
Over the last years, over 10 billion vaccines have been given out to children in polio infected areas. Scientist believe that this has stopped over 13 million cases of polio which is rather impressive.
Polio is short for the official name of Poliomyelitis. It is a highly infectious viral disease which mostly affects young children. There are three different types of the wild polio virus (WPV), type 1, 2 and 3. Though in 2013, type 2 was officially eradicated! Plus, Type 2 polio hasn't been recorded since November of 2012. But, there is still type 1.
Polio spreads from the gut, aiming to invade the nervous system and is known to cause paralysis which can happen in 1 out of 200 cases. The infection route is person-to-person spread mostly in the faecal-oral route which means that someone has gone to the bathroom and not washed their hands before eating. Less frequently, another infection route utilised is by what scientist call a vehicle which is basically anything that can carry disease. In terms of polio, these vehicles can be contaminated water or food.
In 90% of cases, there can be none to mild symptoms when polio is present. Therefore, the disease is unrecognised. In the remaining cases the symptoms are mostly non-specific.
Symptoms of Polio
- Fever
- Fatigue
- Headache
- Vomiting
- Stiffness in the leg
- Pain in the Limbs
- Paralysis
- Inactive Polio Vaccine (IPV) - against all types
- Trivalent oral Polio Vaccine (tOPV) - against all types. No longer in use
- Bivalent oral Polio Vaccine (bOPV) - against type 1 and 3
- Monovalent oral Polio Vaccine (mOPV) - against all but there are separate vaccine for each type (so 3 of this type)
Frequently Asked Questions on Polio (From the WHO website)
Does Polio still exist? Isn't it curable?
Obviously from this post, polio still is in the world. Luckily, there were only 22 reported cases in 2017 which is a dramatic change from 350,000 cases. There is no cure though. Only through vaccines can we eradicate this disease.
What is Vaccine Derived polio?
The vaccines that are taken orally have the abbreviation OPV. These contain a weakened form of the polio virus which tricks the body to think it's attacking the real thing. The weakened form gets to multiply in the intestines of the child while the immune system creates the antibodies needed for polio.
Over the last years, over 10 billion vaccines have been given out to children in polio infected areas. Scientist believe that this has stopped over 13 million cases of polio which is rather impressive.
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