Photo: © AP
Yesterday was the World Polio Day. Every year, in October it is celebrated the birth of Jonas Salk, developer of the first safe and effective polio vaccine, who was born on October 28, 1914. The vaccine was announced to the world by Salk on April 12, 1955, and it consisted of an injected dose of inactivated poliovirus. Later, an oral vaccine was developed by Albert Sabin using attenuated poliovirus, which was licensed in 1962.
Polio was the worst disease of the postwar era. It was first recorded in 1835 and its prevalence was growing ever since. Poliomyelitis is a highly infectious disease caused by the poliovirus. It invades the nervous system and can cause irreversible paralysis in a matter of hours. There is no cure. The turning point in this tragic story was the vaccine.
Polio can be prevented with a vaccine that costs only 0,60 USD. A global effort was made to eradicate the disease: in the 1980s, polio paralyzed at least 1000 children every day all over the world. In the moment I am writing the world is almost polio-free: since the Global Polio Eradication Initiative's inception in 1988, the number of Polio cases has dropped by 99 percent. The Global Polio Eradication Initiative includes Rotary International, the UN Foundation, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, UNICEF, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and WHO. The battle against Polio is a very good example of how good partnerships in Health can make a difference.
Now there are only four remaining polio-endemic countries that haven't stopped the transmission of the disease: Afghanistan, India, Nigeria and Pakistan. But the battle is facing new problems: there is a funding shortage and other barriers to truly make eradication happen. But the battle is facing new problems: there is a funding shortage and other barriers to truly make eradication happen.
read more: UN finds polio among Madagascar's children
read more: Polioinfo
video: Polio's Last Percent
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