Polio – a disease eliminated thanks to vaccines. What are the polio vaccines?

The national COVID-19 vaccination program is being rolled out. During today’s press conference, Prime Minister Morawiecki and Dr. Waldemar Wierzba, director of the Central Clinical Hospital of the Ministry of Interior and Administration in Warsaw, encouraged Poles to get vaccinated, citing the example of Heine-Medin’s disease, i.e. polio. This is one of the diseases that have been eliminated thanks to vaccines.

Photo Polio patient in the so-called iron lung, a breathing machine / 1940.

1. Polio can be infected much like coronavirus
2. The disease causes, in severe cases, paresis, muscle paralysis and paralysis
3. There are two types of effective Heine-Medin Disease vaccines that contain live but avirulent pathogens or killed pathogens
4. More current information can be found on the Onet homepage.

Dr. Wierzba reminded that vaccinations are a milestone in the development of medicine. Were it not for the extensive vaccination campaign, which literally took place all over the world, to this day children would suffer from Heine-Medina disease, or acute widespread childhood paralysis or polio. The doctor mentioned that he saw children who had this disease very badly, precisely because of the inability to vaccinate.

What is polio?

Polio causes one of three types of enteroviruses. Like the coronavirus, they spread through human contact. There are, among others, in nasal and oral secretions.

The polio virus enters the body through the mouth and multiplies in the digestive tract. Although about 98 percent. In cases with mild or no symptoms, in paralytic polio, the virus enters the bloodstream from the gastrointestinal tract and then attacks nerve cells, resulting in 1 to 2 percent. the sick are paralyzed. In severe cases, there is even paralysis of the throat and chest, which can be fatal without artificial respiration.

Polio has been around for thousands of years

Probably polio has plagued humanity for thousands of years. Leg deformities similar to those caused by this disease were noticed in an Egyptian sculpture of a young man from 1400 BCE. In the nineteenth century, polio appeared to be a relatively rare disease. The epidemic reached its size at the beginning of the XNUMXth century, in countries with a relatively high standard of living. More children had polio than diphtheria, typhoid and tuberculosis.

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Scientists say that, paradoxically, the progress in the field of hygiene was responsible for the increase in the incidence of the disease. In the past, infants were primarily exposed to infection through contaminated water. However, their immune system, aided by maternal antibodies, can defeat the virus and develop sustained immunity. Meanwhile, better sanitation meant that polio exposure was delayed. Later in life, the baby loses maternal protection and becomes more susceptible to the most severe form of the disease.

We have two types of polio vaccines

Infection with polio virus gives life-long immunity, but is limited to a specific type of virus (type 1, 2 or 3). Infection with one type does not protect against infection with the other two. Therefore, the development of effective vaccines to prevent paralytic polio was one of the major challenges of XNUMXth century medicine.

Two different types of vaccines are available:

1. Inactivated (killed pathogens) polio vaccine (IPV) developed by Dr. Jonas Salk and used for the first time in 1955.
2. An attenuated (weakened virulent virus) oral polio vaccine (OPV) developed by Dr. Albert Sabina and used for the first time in 1961.

Both vaccines are highly effective against all three types of the polio virus.

1. 1959: Professor Hilary Koprowski wins over the polio epidemic

Thanks to a widespread immunization program in the Western Hemisphere, polio was eradicated in 1994. In 2016, cases were reported in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Immunization programs are still ongoing in poorer countries to eradicate recent outbreaks. Vaccinating children against polio is recommended worldwide until the disease has completely disappeared.

During Tuesday’s press conference, Dr. Wierzba also emphasized the importance of polio vaccination and vaccination in general as our “blessing”. In fact, thanks to them, we got rid of not only Heine-Medin disease. Tetanus, diphtheria, whooping cough, measles, rubella and mumps were also completely overcome.

See also:

1. 19 million people have already been vaccinated against COVID-2,1. What about side effects?
2. Africa has been declared a polio free zone
3. How to convince people to vaccinate against COVID-19? Nine important arguments