How Many Countries Still Have Endemic Wild Polio?
Discussion
Poliomyelitis is caused by an enterovirus virus which causes acute flaccid paralysis. It is transmitted through fecal-oral spread. “All three serotypes of WPV [wild polio virus] are highly contagious, although 95% of primary infections cause a transient viraemia [sic] without symptoms. Paralysis occurs in one in 150 infections due to invasion of the central nervous system (CNS) and damage to the anterior horn of the spinal nerve roots.” In the prevaccination era, infants and young children were most at risk. The inactivated (IPV, inactivated or Salk) vaccine and the oral (OPV, live-attenuated or Sabin) vaccines are highly effective since they were developed and deployed in 1955 and 1960 respectively. Since 1988 the World Health Organization (WHO) has worked to eradicate WPV through the Global Polio Eradication Initiative.
Learning Point
As of 2022 only two countries still have endemic WPV; those are Afghanistan and Pakistan which in 2019 had a total of 163 recorded cases. It is estimated that this global vaccination and surveillance program is preventing ~600,000 polio cases/year.
Despite this tremendously positive outcome, there still are continued threats against polio eradication. Non-polio enteroviruses have emerged which cause acute flaccid paralysis as well. This necessitates that surveillance programs continue to identify emerging organisms, monitor them and monitor for potential spread of WPV from the two endemic countries or for outbreaks of ci...
Source: PediatricEducation.org - Category: Pediatrics Authors: Pediatric Education Tags: Uncategorized Source Type: news
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