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Welcome IFians🤗
The CC Team Is Back To Proudly Announce The Recent Achievement:
India has successfully completed a year without any polio incident. Bringing down the number from 200,000 a year to 0 is a great achievement. But the threat remains...
The incredible achievement has been successful due to immunisation camps/polio booths which have been set up across the country serving to reach out to every single child and ensure he/she are vaccinated. Millions of social workers and volunteers have administered 900 million doses of vaccine in the last year alone. High profile personalities such as Amitabh Bachchan and A.R. Rehman have also helped in promoting the campaign.
The journey has been a rough ride especially with many families resistant in allowing their children to take this vaccination with the fear that it may make their women/children infertile. Nevertheless campaigners have continued their work by educating people from door to door in rural areas and at the same time ensuring every child in the household has been given polio drops.
If all pending lab tests for the virus return negative as expected, the World Health Organisation will remove India from its list of "polio endemic" countries, leaving just Afghanistan, Pakistan and Nigeria in this category.
What is Polio?
Polio is a disease caused by a virus which enters the body through the mouth and can lead to paralysis, breathing problems, and in some extreme cases, death. There are three types of poliovirus; P1, P2 and P3.
Polio can be classified as either symptomatic or asymptomatic. About 95% of all cases display no symptoms (asymptomatic polio), and between 4% - 8% of cases display symptoms (symptomatic polio).
Who gets Polio?
Polio victims tend to be some of the most vulnerable members of the population, including:
- Anyone who has not been immunised against Polio.
Very young children
Pregnant women
Individuals wwho have weak immune systems
Additional risk factors for polio include traveling to places where polio is widespread, living with someone infected with polio, working in a laboratory where live poliovirus is kept, and having your tonsils removed.
What causes Polio?
Polio is caused by the poliovirus, a highly contagious virus that can easily spread from person to person. When a person is infected with poliovirus, the virus resides in the intestinal tract and mucus in the nose and throat.
Poliovirus is usually spread through contact with stool of the infected person (known as fecal-oral transmission). i.e. eating food or drinking water that is contaminated with poliovirus or sharing food with someone infected with poliovirus.
What are the symptoms of Polio?
Polio symptoms usually appear 7 to 14 days after a person becomes infected with poliovirus. However, most infected people (around 95%) don't display any symptoms or become noticeably sick. When symptoms do appear, there are differences depending on the type of polio.
Some symtoms include: fever sore throat, headache, vomiting, fatigue, back and neck pain, arm and leg stiffness, muscle tenderness, muscle spasms, and meningitis.
Some symtoms include: fever sore throat, headache, vomiting, fatigue, back and neck pain, arm and leg stiffness, muscle tenderness, muscle spasms, and meningitis.
How is Polio diagnosed?
Polio is recognised because of symptoms such as neck and back stiffness, abnormal reflexes, and trouble with swallowing and breathing. A doctor will perform a physical examination to check for poliovirus by using throat secretions, stool samples, or cerebrospinal fluid.
How is Polio treated?
Unfortunately, as of now, there is no cure for polio once a person becomes infected. Therefore, treatments focus on providing relief of symptoms as the body fights the poliovirus by increasing comfort, managing symptoms, and preventing further complications. This includes providing bed rest, antibiotics for additional infections, pain killers, ventilators to assist with breathing, physiotherapy and a proper diet.
How can Polio be prevented?
There are two vaccines available to fight polio - inactivated poliovirus (IPV) and oral polio vaccine (OPV).
IPV consists of a series of injections beginning two months after birth and continuing until a child is 4 to 6 years old. This vaccine is provided to most children in the US and is created from inactive poliovirus, but it is very safe and effective and cannot cause polio.
IPV consists of a series of injections beginning two months after birth and continuing until a child is 4 to 6 years old. This vaccine is provided to most children in the US and is created from inactive poliovirus, but it is very safe and effective and cannot cause polio.
OPV is created from a weakened form of poliovirus, and is the vaccine of choice in many countries because of its low cost, ease of administration, and ability to provide excellent immunity in the intestine. Statistics reveal that 95% of people who take 3 doses of this vaccination are protected by all 3 types of poliovirus.
Although no case has been reported and we have been given the "all clear" we should still continue to educate the importance of Polio vaccine to those around us. Together we can make a difference!
Thank you for reading!
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