Polio is something that I did not hear much about as a child. It was something that I pictured in my head as a black and white photo with someone in a wheelchair. This was the logical thing as a child, because I thought it was a problem for our ancestors, not us. Or, was that just what my eight year old self thought? Polio sparked my interest starting in fifth grade when I began to learn about the presidents. FDR had polio, but not many knew it at the time because it would be seen as a disability that a president shouldn’t have. If FDR had it that meant that no one would be getting something like that now, right? We were taught as children that if there was a vaccine people should be getting it less. Now being nineteen, It is crazy for me to think that children could be getting something that I did a history report on. History is supposed to be the past. I still wonder as to why someone would not want to protect their child from this terrible illness that was supposed to be history.
There are two different types of the polio vaccine. The oral Polio vaccine (OPV) is taken orally as drops. The OPV does contain the live attenuated virus. In rare cases this has caused paralysis called vaccine-associated paralytic polio (VAAP), or vaccine derived Polio. Despite this rare chance, the OPV was very effective. The incidence of the the wild polio virus decreased immensely since the introduction of the OPV. The OPV is a great option for people giving aide in foreign countries to administer because it does not require medical training. Later, the inactivated Polio vaccine was created (IPV). Since this is an inactivated virus, it does not pose the threat of causing VAAP. Some countries are still using the OPV, but the World Health Organization has recommended at least one dose of the IPV before the OPV to help reduce VAAP. With these precautions they are hoping to see the eradication of Polio.
Eradication. This is a word everyone wants to see. In regards to Polio there have been many milestones reached in the last 6 months. In October the Wild Poliovirus type three was declared eradicated worldwide. The last case was in Nigeria in 2012. The eradication of type three followed the eradication of type two declared in 2015. According to The WHO, WPV3 no longer exists anywhere aside from the ones locked in secure containment. Unfortunately, the news of Wild Poliovirus type one is not as good. It has not been eradicated, but contrarily seems to be expanding. In October 2019 within a one week span Afghanistan had two new cases of WPV1 and Pakistan with four. There were only 33 reported WPV in 2018, comparing to 94 in 2019. This trend also affected VAAP. As of October 2019 there were 102 cases of vaccine derived Polio. Seeing that two types have been eradicated brings so much hope for the future, but then seeing the bad news with another type puts the fear right back. No one wants to blame others, but I can’t help but think of anti-vaxxers and how they are doing nothing but hindering these amazing medical advances. I do not know this for a fact, but I just can’t help but think that they are the ones not playing as a team wanting to protect the human race as a whole.
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