Today 24th October 2018, WHO marks the World Polio Day 2018. The Polio Day Theme 2018 is “End Polio Now”.
Poliomyelitis (polio) is a highly infectious viral disease, which mainly affects young 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.
However, thanks to the global polio eradication initiative in 1988, the following regions are now certified polio-free:
- America
- Europe
- Western Pacific
- Southeast Asia
Cases due to wild polio virus have decreased by over 99% since 1988, from an estimated 350,000 cases then, to 22 reported cases in 2017. As a result of the global effort to eradicate the disease, more than 16 million people have been saved from paralysis.
But polio is still persistent in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Nigeria.
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.
Prevention
There is no cure for polio, it can only be prevented. Polio vaccine, given multiple times, can protect a child for life. The polio vaccine was developed in 1953 and made available in 1957
Vaccination schedule
| Age | |
| At Birth | One dose |
| 6 weeks | One dose |
| 10 weeks | One dose |
| 14 weeks | One dose |
| 12 to 24 months | Booster dose |
One Response
The Polio vaccine is available in both oral (Sabin’s) and injectable (Salk’s) forms.
They confer protection via two but synergistic means.
It is recommended that both are given together to every child to ensure effective Polio preventive