“Pandora box of polio”

Have the world just disposed of this Pandora box or is it still here?

“24 October” World’s polio day, celebrated around the globe assigns social importance to its existence.

What is polio?

“Poliomyelitis” single stranded RNA virus defined as highly contagious disease caused by a virus that attacks the nervous system. It is crippling and potentially deadly disease. Children usually more than 5 years of age are likely to in contract with the virus.

Types:

Strains of polio-virus are

1.       O-outbreaks of Paralytic Polio

2.       P-Potent Antigenic Strain

3.       V-Vaccine Associated Polio

Symptoms:

It attacks in case of high fever, intense muscle pain and loss of muscle reflexes.

Causes:

It is inflammatory disease which usually enters the environment in these feces of someone who is infected. The areas with poor sanitation the virus easily spread from feces into the water supply or by touch or in food.

Effects:

It is viral which may affect the spinal cord causing muscle weakness and disorderness .It damages “Central Nervous System” and paralysis the body moving organs like arms or legs for life time. Motor-Nervous get affected and disable a person. WHO (WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION) says 1 in 200 polio infected results in permanent paralysis.

Then and now:

Polio was peaked in United States in 1952 with 57,623 reported cases. Since the Polio-Vaccination Assistance Act, the U.S has been polio free since 1979. America, Europe, Western Pacific and South East Asia are polio free regions under the global polio eradication initiative in 1988. According to new research conducted by some scholars the virus still prevails in Pakistan and Afghanistan as mysterically the rest of the world have been succeeded in “polio free regions game”. Nigeria which is also under the influence of this pandemic moving fast towards the “polio-free regions” successfully. Several Stakeholders are making efforts at the global and National level in Pakistan to eradicate its influence.

Pakistan started its Expanded Program on immunization (EPI) in 1978, in which Afghanistan also took part in 2016.

In Pakistan about 72 cases have emerged in recent research. The majority of cases are from KPK and tribal areas while rests are from other provinces respectively. The disposal of the virus has been complicated due to some backward mindset that there is an aura of suspicion about the immunization. They are distrustful about the vaccine and the implementers.   Polio prevalence is also not free from politics and corruption. People are suspected that existence of such viruses offers some opportunity to businessmen to design projects to hunt funding, to get a job or to earn money.

Implications: there are certain implications being followed to fall Pakistan in polio-free region.

1.       Polio awareness debates should be opened up especially in tribal areas or where people are less educated.

2.       Vaccination programs should be devised.

3.       Strong strategies must be implemented.

4.       Stakeholders should analyze the situation comprehensively and deal with it accordingly.

5.       Oral polio virus vaccine must sustain.

6.       Inactivated polio virus vaccine must also corroborate.

7.       Health organizations and political parties must collaborate.