Eradicating Polio

Vaccines have been a hot topic on my blog. I mean hey, they play a very critical role in our everyday lives. They protect us from dangerous pathogens, they allow for the spread of disease to be greatly reduced, and in the case when people are against routine/proper vaccination, it can have grave effects for society-especially those who are immunocompromised. Vaccines are especially important when it comes to dealing with the viral disease poliomyelitis, also known as polio. For those who are not familiar with the disease, The World Health Organization describes polio as a highly contagious disease that mainly infects children and can be transferred via person-to-person transmission or through other vehicles such as food and water. Symptoms include fever, fatigue, limb pain, and in some cases paralysis. Unfortunately, this disease is incurable, so the only way it can be prevented and dealt with is through vaccination.

The two main vaccinations used for the Polio disease are the Intravenous Polio Vaccine (IPV) and the Oral Polio Vaccine (OPV). The OPV is much more commonly used in low-economic countries because it is cheaper and easier to administer. Current news with the Polio vaccine is that it is close to being eradicated. This article shares that in October of 2019, Type 3 of the polio virus had officially been eradicated. In 2015, Type 2 had been eradicated. That leaves only one more type, Type 1, to be eradicated. The way that these diseases are able to be eradicated is that the virus cannot live long outside of a human carrier. If everyone is vaccinated against the virus, then it is not able to infect anyone and therefore it does not have a reservoir that it will be able to live in. This leads to the death of the virus, and so far all of the Type 2 and Type 3 Polio viruses have died. The two countries where Type 1 is still present are Afghanistan and Pakistan. Public health initiatives such as the Global Polio Eradication Initiative have been working tirelessly to get these countries the resources that they need.

I believe that the work being done to eradicate Polio is very important. When you look at the infection numbers in the past and compare it to the present-they have dramatically decreased. In an article released by The World Health Organization, it is stated that since the start of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative, case numbers have been decreased by more than 99%. Although this disease is endemic in only a small number of countries, I believe this is a global health issue that all countries should help contribute to fight. At the end of the day, if the disease is not completely eradicated, everyone in the world can still potentially acquire it. If more governments came together to provide resources and tackle health issues globally, not only could we eradicate Polio, but I also believe that we could greatly decrease the spread of many other diseases. It’s been done before with smallpox, so there isn’t any reason why it cannot be done again!