It is possible to prevent polio by stimulating your immune system with vaccination.
- Vaccinating individuals, especially young children, can establish lifelong immunity to the disease.
- The inactivated polio vaccine needs to be given at 2, 4, and between 6 and 18 months of age with a booster between ages 4-6.
To date, there have been 94 wild poliovirus cases reported in 2019, compared to 33 in all of 2018.
Once the virus that causes polio has infected a person, there is no treatment that will cure polio. Early diagnosis and supportive treatments such as bed rest, pain control, good nutrition, and physical therapy to prevent deformities from occurring over time can help reduce the long-term symptoms due to muscle loss.
Inactivated polio vaccine (IPV) is the only polio vaccine that has been given in the United States since 2000. It is given by shot in the arm or leg, depending on the person's age. Oral polio vaccine (OPV) is used in other countries. CDC recommends that children get four doses of polio vaccine.
Although it had long been suspected that polio was an infectious disease, definitive proof only came in 1908, when Dr Karl Landsteiner and Dr Erwin Popper managed to induce polio in monkeys by injecting them with extracts of the spinal cord of a boy who had died from polio.
Pregnant women, people with weakened immune systems — such as those who are HIV-positive — and young children are the most susceptible to the poliovirus. If you have not been vaccinated, you can increase your risk of contracting polio when you: travel to an area that has had a recent polio outbreak.
Polio is a viral disease which may affect the spinal cord causing muscle weakness and paralysis. The polio virus enters the body through the mouth, usually from hands contaminated with the stool of an infected person. Paralysis is more common and more severe when infection occurs in older individuals.
Wild polio currently exists only in a few countries in Asia and Africa. In 2015 only 74 cases of polio were reported, all from Pakistan and Afghanistan. In 2016 cases were also reported from Nigeria, according to the Global Polio Eradication Initiative.
The action of oral polio vaccine (OPV) is two-pronged. OPV produces antibodies in the blood ('humoral' or serum immunity) to all three types of poliovirus, and in the event of infection, this protects the individual against polio paralysis by preventing the spread of poliovirus to the nervous system.
Why does it matter? An early experiment in Vellore in 1978 showed that pulses delivered to a large cohort of children gave them strong immunity even when the vaccine was not so potent. This was because vaccine pulses rapidly replaced the wild-polio virus circulating in the community with the vaccine-virus.
Oral polio vaccines proved to be superior in administration, eliminating the need for sterile syringes and making the vaccine more suitable for mass vaccination campaigns. OPV also provided longer-lasting immunity than the Salk vaccine, as it provides both humoral immunity and cell-mediated immunity.
Polio is spread when the stool of an infected person is introduced into the mouth of another person through contaminated water or food (fecal-oral transmission). Oral-oral transmission by way of an infected person's saliva may account for some cases.
For protection, all children must be immunized against polio, with OPV every time it is offered. Polio is a proven safe vaccine. There are no side effects to OPV, and it is not harmful to take it multiple times.
Dear Maria, You are very observant and have done most of the detective work. Both the Smallpox and BCG vaccines leave a scar on the upper arm. Your scar is from the BCG vaccine.
There are three types of polio virus. Lifelong immunity usually depends on which type of virus a person contracts. Second attacks are rare and result from infection with a polio virus of a different type than the first attack.
Each child requires just two drops per dose to be immunized against polio. Usually administered four times if the EPI schedule is followed, OPV is safe and effective in providing protection against the paralyzing poliovirus.
Adult vaccination
In the U.S., adults aren't routinely vaccinated against polio because most are already immune, and the chances of contracting polio are minimal. Adults at risk include those who are traveling to parts of the world where polio still occurs or those who care for people who have polio.Diagnosis. Doctors often recognize polio by symptoms, such as neck and back stiffness, abnormal reflexes, and difficulty swallowing and breathing. To confirm the diagnosis, a sample of throat secretions, stool or a colorless fluid that surrounds your brain and spinal cord (cerebrospinal fluid) is checked for poliovirus
Polio is spread when the stool of an infected person is introduced into the mouth of another person through contaminated water or food (fecal-oral transmission). Oral-oral transmission by way of an infected person's saliva may account for some cases.
Each summer, polio would come like The Plague. Beaches and pools would close — because of the fear that the poliovirus was waterborne.
How long is a person with polio contagious? Patients infected with the polio virus can pass the virus on for 7–10 days before the onset of disease. In addition, they can continue to shed the virus in their stool for 3–6 weeks.
Unfortunately for humans, the virus had some cause in 2019 to celebrate as well. First of all, wild polio virus 1 made a bit of a comeback. According to the United Nations (UN) News, while there were only 28 reported cases of polio from WPV1 in 2018, the count surged to 163 in 2019, as of mid-December.
By 1991, only 83 percent of Pakistani children had been vaccinated. Research by the Center for Disease Control (CDC) in April 1998 cited a failure to vaccinate, vaccine failure, and inadequate immunization strategies as causes for the continued incidences of polio in this time.
Symptoms vary from mild, flu-like symptoms to life-threatening paralysis. In less than 1% of cases, polio causes permanent paralysis of the arms, legs or breathing muscles. Between 5 and 10% of people who develop paralytic polio will die. Physical symptoms may return 15 years or more after the first polio infection.
The polio virus usually enters the environment in the feces of someone who is infected. In areas with poor sanitation, the virus easily spreads from feces into the water supply, or, by touch, into food. In addition, because polio is so contagious, direct contact with a person infected with the virus can cause polio.
Polio is a highly contagious virus that can result in spinal cord and brainstem paralysis. It most commonly affects children under 5 years old.
Wild poliovirus is spread through faeces and saliva. It is primarily transmitted through faecal–oral spread and is an important consideration where sanitation is poor. 'Live' oral polio vaccine (OPV) virus can be shed in the faeces for 6 weeks and may lead to infection in unvaccinated contacts.
Wild polio currently exists only in a few countries in Asia and Africa. In 2015 only 74 cases of polio were reported, all from Pakistan and Afghanistan. In 2016 cases were also reported from Nigeria, according to the Global Polio Eradication Initiative.
