I grew up in India and although it’s been a few decades since I left my home country, I still clearly recall some of my early schoolmates. Some because they were exceedingly noisy. Others because they were funny, friendly, bright, nice or athletic. There was one girl who was funny, friendly, bright, and nice. Not athletic, however. She had a very distinctive limp due to paralytic polio, the worst outcome of being infected with Poliovirus. Another dear friend’s little brother had been infected with the measles virus and experienced encephalitis – an inflammation of the brain. Sadly, the infection destroyed enough of his brain to stunt his intellectual development. In his 40s now, he is heavily dependent on others for all aspects of his care.
At 13 years of age, my twin and I both decided we would study Microbiology. The unseen world fascinated us. How could something so little cause so much destruction? My later deep dive into Microbiology would leave me thrilled at the science of vaccines. To introduce our immune system to a germ without its usual risk of maiming or killing, felt like a brilliant strategy. Personally seeing the downside of not getting vaccinated was a huge impetus for saying Yes to vaccinations as a child and now as an adult.
You’ve probably heard about the incident of paralytic polio in the United States.
After smallpox was declared eradicated in 1980, much concerted effort went into eradicating polio, globally. And we came very close to doing just that.
Even if one person remains infected with this virus, unvaccinated individuals everywhere are at risk of getting infected.
Could there be more cases that are unaccounted for? If yes, what are the risks of unaccounted cases?
Let’s take a look at what the virus does once it’s inside the human body.
Once Poliovirus enters a vulnerable individual, the virus can cause one of four outcomes:
Because the poliovirus is only found in humans, the existence of two types of highly effective polio vaccines should allow us to eradicate this virus.
If we understand what the virus does, we can counter that with our own strategies.
The prevailing thought is that the young man from New York picked up the poliovirus in Europe before returning back home.
None of this is good.
The good news is we have several measures to stop transmission of Poliovirus:
It’s not difficult to say no to infections.
Say No to infections, my friends, and stay healthy.