Children and adolescents who have not completed the full vaccination cycle should get vaccinated against polio, called the Chief Sanitary Inspectorate. This week it was reported that two children contracted polio in Ukraine.
“Due to the current situation in Ukraine, people who are under the age of 19 and have not completed the full vaccination course in accordance with the Polish Preventive Vaccination Program, are called upon to supplement poliomyelitis vaccinations”, reads a release on the GIS website.
The inspectorate reminds that compulsory primary vaccination against polio (Heine-Medina disease) should be given to a child in three doses before the child is 14 months of age, and that a single booster vaccination should be given when the child is 6 years old.
In Poland, 95% are vaccinated against polio. children, and in children over 2 years of age vaccination rates range from 99,3% to 99,9%. “However, it should be borne in mind that the Zakarpattia region, where the disease occurred, borders on four countries, including Poland,” GIS points out. Anyone who travels to regions where poliovirus has been confirmed should also be vaccinated.
On Wednesday, the NGO Polio (an association dealing with the fight against this disease) announced that there were two cases of polio cases in Transcarpathia in western Ukraine. Children 4 years and 10 months of age developed polio; the paralysis characteristic of the course of this disease occurred on June 30 and July 7.
Ukraine is particularly vulnerable to the spread of the virus as vaccinations do not cover all children. Only 50 percent. of them were vaccinated in 2014 against this very contagious disease.
Since the establishment of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative in 1988 under the auspices of the United Nations, the incidence of Heine-Medina disease has fallen by more than 99%. In 2013, the virus hit Somalia. Also in 2013, polio emerged in Syria.
In Poland, in the years 1951-1957, from 1,7 thousand. up to 3 illnesses annually. During the epidemic in 1958, over 6 people were reported. illnesses. In the late 50s, following the introduction of vaccinations, the number of polio cases dropped significantly – from 1963, over a dozen were registered annually, and from the late 70s, they occurred sporadically. The last case of polio in Poland was in 1984 and it was caused by a wild type virus.
The disease is usually transmitted through direct contact – mainly by food or, to a lesser extent, by airborne droplets; it usually affects children under 5 years of age, but any unvaccinated person, regardless of age, can get sick.
Infections with polio viruses have various courses: from asymptomatic, mild, through meningitis, to severe paralytic diseases. It is estimated that about 1 in 1000 infected children and 1 in 75 adults may get paralysis of the muscles.
Dr. Paweł Stefanoff from the National Institute of Public Health – National Institute of Hygiene points out that any part of the body can be affected. Paralysis increases in the first few days and is accompanied by fever. Most often they are permanent, but in some patients they may resolve spontaneously after a few weeks or months. In the early stages of the disease, paralysis of the respiratory muscles or its complications may be fatal. In some patients, the so-called post-polio syndrome, i.e. progressive paralysis of muscles many years after infection with polio viruses.