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Polio Eradication is possible

As many years passed, the medical world gained more knowledge about diseases,
however the absolute cure of poliomyelitis is still not found. So the best that we can
do in the present day is to focus on the prevention and the eradication of the disease.
Some people might say it is hard to completely get rid of polio in the whole world, but
statistically proven, polio cases have decreased over 99% since 1988. This fact is
really encouraging and thus the eradication of the polio world word is possible and
will be achieve soon in the future.
Polio is a disease that mainly affects children under five years of age. One in 200
infections leads to irreversible paralysis. Among those paralyzed, 5% to 10% die
when their breathing muscles become immobilized. Polio is mainly transmitted
through fecal-oral route, but in some rare cases, it transmit through contaminated
water or food. Polio is a highly infectious disease caused by a virus. As soon as the
virus invades the nervous system, it can cause total paralysis in hours. Because of the
shocking impact of the disease and how it will ruin the life of a person once he catch
the disease, it is really important to get rid of polio. The program of polio eradication
first started in 1988, the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI), leading by
national governments, World Health Organization (WHO), Rotary International, the
US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), The United Nations
Children's Fund (UNICEF), and supported by key partners including the Bill and
Melinda Gates Foundation. Theres also Rotary Internationals commitment raising
funds to protect all children from the disease.
According to Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC): There is no
cure (for polio), but there are safe and effective vaccines. Therefore, the strategy to

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eradicate polio is based on preventing infection by immunizing every child to stop
transmission and ultimately make the world polio free. Even with just one person in
the world has polio, the whole human society is still in danger. Although improved
public sanitation and careful personal hygiene may help reduce the spread of polio,
the most effective way to prevent the disease is with polio vaccine. Oral polio
vaccines (OPV) and inactivated poliomyelitis vaccine (IPV) are two really effective
polio vaccines existed that can prevent people from contracting the disease.
While the rest of the world had already made some great progress toward
eradication of polio, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Nigeria are still struggling to fight
polio. They are still in struggle because the people in the countries dont believe in
vaccination. For example, Pakistan has a high rate of cases of polio because there are
antigovernment militants who denied immunization in the country. The reason they
deny the immuzation is because on May 2nd, 2011, president Barack Obama
announced that the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) was able to located and
killed Osama Bin Laden because the agents in CIA was disguised as a fake hepatitis
vaccination campaign in Pakistan. As soon as the news was released the people in
Pakistan were so afraid that the vaccine givers are American spies so they refuse to
get vaccinated. Right after that happened, WHO soon declared that polio has reemerged as a public health emergency in Pakistan. Same reason applies to Nigeria.
Rumors of side effects from vaccination compress the acceptance of immunization in
Nigeria. The exact reason of why Afghanistan still suffer from polio is unknown, but
from the reasons the other two countries have the reason for Afghanistan to suffer
from the disease is obviously not able to get people vaccinated. Either the people
dont have the source of getting vaccinated or they refuse to get vaccinated. It is
important to solve the vaccination problems in these three countries if we want to get

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further in the progress of polio eradication.
As we strive for polio eradication, the replacement of OPV to IPV is a must.
Because OPV uses live, attenuated, thus theres chance of people getting the actual
disease form the vaccination itself. Even though the vaccine associated polio occur in
such a small number it is necessary to prevent it from happening. In the other hand,
IPV is inactivated. It wont cause polio and is safe for people with weakened immune
systems. Though IPV is more expensive to make, it eliminates the vaccine-associated
polio.
There are three challenges that the GPEI faces as of today. The first is the
magnitude of reduced effectiveness of OPV. This will leave many children who have
received multiple doses still susceptible to polio which is bad. The elimination of type
2 virus which occurs naturally, could potentially help solve the problem. By removing
the type 2 virus, it will prevent the other two types of viruses from appearing.
The second problem is that OPV viruses can regain fitness and neuro-virulence
(immunity) with continuous people to people transmissions in areas of low population
immunity. An example would be: Circulating vaccine-derived polioviruses
(cVDPVs) were first recognized on Hispaniola in 2000 and have since caused
outbreaks and isolated cases of paralytic disease from viruses of all three serotypes in
multiple locations. The existence of cVDPVs shows us that all OPV use will need to
be stopped in order to achieve full polio eradication.
The last challenge Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI) currently faces is all
the cases in the past 9 months caused by ongoing wild-virus transmission were in
Afghanistan and Pakistan. Africa also has had 9 months without detection of the

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disease, which is amazing in that case. Also, circulating vaccine-derived polioviruses
are continuing to cause poliomyelitis in a few countries. In The Lancet Infectious
Diseases, the results of two clinical trials of OPV that address these challenges are
reported by Fatima Mir and Concepcin Estvariz.
Though polio is very rare in the united states nowadays, it is still best to check
with your doctor for polio vaccination recommendations before traveling to a part of
the world where polio may still occur naturally, or where oral polio vaccine (OPV) is
still used, such as Central and South America, Africa and Asia. In countries that use
the OPV vaccine, made with live, but weakened (attenuated) polio virus, the risk of
paralytic polio(paralyzes body) to travelers is extremely low, but not zero. So you still
have a chance to get it. In the U.S., adults aren't routinely vaccinated against polio
because most are already immune and the chances of contracting polio are minimal.
However, certain adults at high risk of polio who have had a primary vaccination
series with either IPV or the oral polio vaccine (OPV) should receive a single booster
shot of IPV. A single booster dose of IPV lasts a lifetime. This helps prevent and
lowers the chances of contracting polio, especially as said before, if you travel to
other countries that had polio before.
The eradication of Polio would be an amazing feat that the world would most
likely celebrate. Economic modelling has found that the eradication of polio would
save at least US$ 4050 billion over the next 20 years, mostly in low-income
countries. This means, that money could be used to improve the world and used in
schools or governments. More importantly, complete eradication would mean that
no child will ever again, need to suffer the terrible effects of lifelong polioparalysis.

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The Global Polio Eradication Initiative along with the support of the WHO,
UNICEF, the CDC, Rotary International, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and
others, all contributed to help Polio eradication. Their main ideas were to focus on
strengthening and have routine immunization in some instances (e.g., measles
immunization in the Americas) and the delivery of vitamins to people for them to
have a healthier body. If we can all get vaccinated for polio and follow the plan, the
eradication of polio is waiting for us in the future.

Work Cited
Hopkins, Donald. "Disease Eradication NEJM." New England Journal of
Medicine. 3 Jan. 2013. Web. 28 Sept. 2015.
Modlin, John. and Wenger, Jay. "Achieving and Maintaining Polio Eradication - New
Strategies NEJM." New England Journal of Medicine. 16 Oct. 2014. Web. 28
Sept. 2015.
"Polio Eradication" CDC. 2 Sep. 2014. Web. 28 Sept. 2015.
"Polio eradication: the CIA and their unintended victims The Lancet. 31 May 2014.
Web. 28 Sept. 2015.
"Poliomyelitis." WHO. Oct. 2014. Web. 28 Sept. 2015.
"Polio Symptoms. May Clinic. 11 Mar. 2014. Web. 28 Sept. 2015.
"Vaccines and Diseases." World Health Organization. 15 Aug. 2015. Web. 28 Sept.
2015.

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"Vaccine Research Will Accelerate Eradication of Polio." Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 07 Feb. 2014. Web.
28 Sept. 2015