The Call to End Polio Now Continues
A worldwide call to end the spreading of polio still continues as the day for celebrating and creating awareness of the disease nears. Many organizations and health groups are formed to help fight the disease that is mostly suffered by children in all parts of the world.
Poliomyelitis or polio is a deadly infectious disease caused by a virus. The polio virus invades the nervous system and can cause irreversible paralysis in just hours. It is a crippling and fatal disease which mainly affects young children, most under 5 years of age. The virus that causes polio is transmitted from one person to another either through the called faecal-oral route or by contaminated water or food and then multiplies in the intestines. This means that the virus enters the body through the mouth (by water or food) and reproduces in the intestines. It is then released into the environment through faeces where spreading starts in the community.
Fast spreading of the polio virus will likely to happen in areas where there is poor hygiene and sanitation, mostly in rural areas and third world countries. But as of this year, only three countries were left among the 125 countries found to have large number of polio cases. These were Afghanistan, Nigeria and Pakistan. According to World Health Organization or WHO, if there is one child infected with polio, the risk of increasing the disease is still likely to happen.
The call to eradicate polio globally was launch in 1988. Since then, with continued efforts of WHO, CDC, UNICEF, Rotary International and other private organizations, the number of polio cases has fallen by 99%. The first certified polio-free was the region of Americas, declared in 1994. It was followed in 2000 by the Western Pacific Region and by the European Region in 2002. It was only by the month of March this year that the South East Asia region was certified polio free, marking the success of stopping polio in India which is the most technically-challenging place.
But failure to implement strategic approaches has led to the ongoing transmission of the polio virus in Afghanistan, Nigeria and Pakistan. If polio can’t be stop in these countries, the world can expect hundreds of thousands of new polio cases every year.
It is said that it will only cost less than a dollar to protect a child against polio, by means of preventing it through immunization. A polio vaccine given not just once, but in multiple times, can almost protect a child for life. This is why the new Polio Eradication and Endgame Strategic Plan for 2013-2018 were developed. It was exhibited at a Global Vaccine Summit held in Abu Dhabi, UAE. It was presented with the plan to exterminate all the types of polio disease at the same time.
Successful elimination of polio around the world will mean that no child will suffer the effects of lifelong polio-paralysis, no matter where they live. So let’s start helping in the fight to end polio now.
Published at: 10/24/2015
