A vaccine success story: Polio

WHAT IS POLIO?

Polio is a virus that can cause permanent paralysis. It mainly affects children under 5 years old.
Polio cannot be cured, but it can be prevented. If the polio vaccine is given multiple times, it can protect a child for life.

THE MISSION TO ERADICATE POLIO

The Global Polio Eradication Initiative was founded in 1988 to try to eradicate polio. Eradication means that in the future, not a single person will catch polio. Polio eradication is possible because the virus only lives in humans, and because we have an effective vaccine to prevent it spreading.

Since 1988 the Global Polio Eradication Initiative has worked with governments to ensure every child is vaccinated.

In 1988, over 350,000 people caught polio
In 2018, there were only 146 cases!

Most countries in Africa are now free of polio. Last year, there were cases of polio in the DRC, Mozambique, Niger, Nigeria and Somalia. So far this year, there have been 5 cases in Nigeria, and only 1 in the DRC.

However, there is hope that within a few years we will have eradicated polio. This means that there will be no more cases of polio.

HOW DOES THE POLIO VACCINE WORK?

There are two types of vaccine used to stop polio. Both are safe and effective.

The oral polio vaccine (OPV) is given in two drops into the mouth. It contains a weakened form of the polio virus. It builds protection in the stomach and gut. It stops polio from spreading from person to person.

The inactivated polio virus (IPV) is given as an injection. It contains inactivated (killed) polio. It builds protection in the blood, and helps to build immunity to polio. However, it dose not stop polio from spreading between people.

Because the IPV does not stop the spread of polio, for many years the OPV was used worldwide. The OPV has been incredibly effective. Remember, in 1988 there were 350,000 cases of polio. In 2018 there were only 33.

BUT EARLIER IN THE ARTICLE, YOU SAID THAT THERE WERE 146 CASES ON POLIO IN 2018, NOT 33?

This is correct.

There are actually two types of polio.
‘Wild’ poliovirus has been around for over 1000 years. In 2018 there were only 33 cases of wild poliovirus.

However there were 113 cases of ‘vaccine derived’ polio. The OPV vaccine contains a weakened form of the polio virus. In very rare cases the weakened polio virus can turn back into it’s dangerous form – and cause ‘vaccine derived polio’. This happens in about 1/750,000 people.

The OPV vaccine was used for many years because it stops polio from spreading between people. This is very important in countries where ‘wild’ polio is still a problem (currently only Afghanistan and Pakistan).

However, once ‘wild’ polio has been eliminated, countries can switch to using only the IPV. This happened in most countries in the world in 2016. Because the IPV contains polio that has been killed, there is no risk of developing vaccine-derived polio.

WHAT CAN I DO?

Remember, we live in a very connected world. As long as a single child remains infected, children in all countries are at risk of catching polio.
If we are not careful, the disease could start to spread again, and within ten years there could be as many as 200,000 cases each year.

The most important thing you can do is make sure that everyone you know is vaccinated.

Hopefully, within the next few years, we will have completely eradicated polio!

AILIDH FINLAYSON

VIEW ALL POSTS

Leave a reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *


Fatal error: Uncaught Error: Call to undefined function create_function() in /home/213602.cloudwaysapps.com/nxykgcmrcx/public_html/wp-content/themes/helpinghands/framework/inc/sd-theme-functions/sd-functions.php:188 Stack trace: #0 /home/213602.cloudwaysapps.com/nxykgcmrcx/public_html/wp-includes/class-wp-hook.php(326): sd_style_tag_cloud() #1 /home/213602.cloudwaysapps.com/nxykgcmrcx/public_html/wp-includes/plugin.php(205): WP_Hook->apply_filters() #2 /home/213602.cloudwaysapps.com/nxykgcmrcx/public_html/wp-includes/category-template.php(778): apply_filters() #3 /home/213602.cloudwaysapps.com/nxykgcmrcx/public_html/wp-includes/widgets/class-wp-widget-tag-cloud.php(60): wp_tag_cloud() #4 /home/213602.cloudwaysapps.com/nxykgcmrcx/public_html/wp-includes/class-wp-widget.php(394): WP_Widget_Tag_Cloud->widget() #5 /home/213602.cloudwaysapps.com/nxykgcmrcx/public_html/wp-includes/widgets.php(837): WP_Widget->display_callback() #6 /home/213602.cloudwaysapps.com/nxykgcmrcx/public_html/wp-content/themes/helpinghands/sidebar.php(26): dynamic_sidebar() #7 /home/213602.cloudwaysapps.com/nxykgcmrcx/public_html/wp-includes/template.php(790): require_once('/home/213602.cl...') #8 /home/213602.cloudwaysapps.com/nxykgcmrcx/public_html/wp-includes/template.php(725): load_template() #9 /home/213602.cloudwaysapps.com/nxykgcmrcx/public_html/wp-includes/general-template.php(136): locate_template() #10 /home/213602.cloudwaysapps.com/nxykgcmrcx/public_html/wp-content/themes/helpinghands/single.php(114): get_sidebar() #11 /home/213602.cloudwaysapps.com/nxykgcmrcx/public_html/wp-includes/template-loader.php(106): include('/home/213602.cl...') #12 /home/213602.cloudwaysapps.com/nxykgcmrcx/public_html/wp-blog-header.php(19): require_once('/home/213602.cl...') #13 /home/213602.cloudwaysapps.com/nxykgcmrcx/public_html/index.php(17): require('/home/213602.cl...') #14 {main} thrown in /home/213602.cloudwaysapps.com/nxykgcmrcx/public_html/wp-content/themes/helpinghands/framework/inc/sd-theme-functions/sd-functions.php on line 188
WordPress › Error

There has been a critical error on this website.

Learn more about troubleshooting WordPress.