WORLD POLIO DAY CELEBRATION

olusolaemmanuel (62)in #health • 6 years ago

WORLD POLIO DAY

Ha, 💃 today 24 October marks the celebration of the world Polio Day.

What is Poliomyelitis?

Poliomyelitis is a highly infectious viral disease more commonly known as 'polio' that affects children.

Children are the main target of this virus, which is usually transmitted by persons -to-person via faecal -oral route through the contaminated water and food which helps the virus to multiple in the intestine.

The world Polio Day was established by Rotary international an NGO over a decade ago to mark the birth of Jonas Salk, who and his team developed the first vaccine again poliomyelitis in the year 1955. The Rotary international has also pledge almost $100 in grants to support the eradication of the disease.

Research has shown that polio has been in existence many years ago, but the ever first reported clinical description of the disease was in Victorian era.

The work of Jonas Salk and his team in creating an inactivated poliovirus vaccine and subsequent widespread use of the oral poliovirus, developed by Albert Sabin led to the 1988 establishment of Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI) which has help reduced polio worldwide by 99%.

Note:There is no cure for polio, but there are safe and effective vaccines

In recent report from W HO, only three countries worldwide is yet to be free from polio case :Nigeria, pakistan, Afghanistan.

COMMON SYMPTOMS OF POLIO

√ Fatigue

√ Headache

√ Vomiting & pain in the limb (which can lead to permanent paralysis)

The Global Polio Eradication Initiative was a collaboration effort between five partners :WHO, Rotary international, US Center for Diseases Control and Prevention, The UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) and Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

Within the pasted 30 years more that 2.5 billion children have been vaccinated with over $11 bn of investment and worker of over 200 million volunteer which has drastically reduce the over 125 countries classed case of polio endemic with over 350,000 cases reported annually to reduction of 22 cases in two countries worldwide this year. Making this the closest of the GPEI to eradication of polio.

The GPEI partners were particularly proud over the success in eradicating polio in India due to their high population density, high migration rates, poor sanitation, high birth rates, and low rates of general route immunization.

CHALLENGES TO GLOBAL FREE POLIO ERADICATION

The current persistence of polio cases in Nigeria, Afghanistan and Pakistan has been due to terrorist attack in the north -eastern part of Nigeria and however, in Afghanistan and Pakistan is as a result of cross -boarder migration between the two countries which is as a result of conflict.
Some parents are scared about the repeated vaccination of their children. To fully combat the virus, it's necessary for a child to undergo multiple round of vaccination because children can easily be affected by other virus or bacteria infection which may spake up the reaction and making it difficult for the vaccine to work.
Improvement in diet and sanitation of the body and the environment will help to prevent polio from spreading.