Polio was once a dreaded paralytic disease. It had the power take away control of your own body. In this gradual process, you become weak and lose control of your extremities (most commonly the legs). Then you may have trouble swallowing and talking. One of the most striking features of polio is respiratory paralysis which can eventually lead to death.
Polio (poliomyelitis) is, actually, an ancient disease. An Egyptian stele dating back to 1403 - 1365 BC portrays a priest with a walking stick and foot deformities that are characteristic of the disease. This is one of the earliest records of polio. Throughout the years, it has survived and continued to infect humans until a series of significant medical advancement was achieved. Let's take a quick look at this timeline which starts on the late 1700s straight to the 20th century.
- 1789, its clinical characteristics were described by a British physician named Michael Underwood.
- 1929, Philip Drinker and Luis Shaw developed the iron lung to aid in respiration.
- 1953, Salk and his associates developed a potentially safe, inactivated (killed), injected polio vaccine.
- 1955 - 57, Incidence of polio in the U.S. falls by 85 - 90%.
- 1962, the Salk vaccine replaced by the Sabin vaccine for most purposes because it is easier to administer and less expensive.
- 1988, Rotary International, Pan-American Health Organization, World Health Organization, Centers for Disease Control, UNICEF begin international campaign to stop transmission of polio everywhere in the world.
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Despite these advancements, rapid elimination of polio worldwide started in the year 1988 and by 2014, only 3 countries had reported cases. These were Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Nigeria.
Quick Facts:
- Did you know that 90% of polio infections are subclinical? (no signs and symptoms)
- Only 5% of infected persons will experience minor symptoms. (fever, malaise, sore throat, muscle pains, and headache)
- Less than 1% of patients will develop meningitis (infection of the meninges of the spinal cord and the brain) which may lead to motor and respiratory paralysis.
So How Did Humanity Get Rid of Paralytic Polio?
Polio is caused by a virus, which means it will just resolve by itself without any medications. With this in mind, prevention would be the best way to eradicate the disease. After the discovery and success of the polio vaccines cases drastically went down and as of 2016, there are only 3 countries with Polio. (As stated above.)
For my country, the Philippines, the last case of was in 1993. In the year 2000, the Philippines was declared Polio free along with the majority of the world. Take a look at this latest statistic provided by the World Economic Forum.
New Emergences of Cases
This successful eradication of polio should not make us complacent. There are now new isolated cases that report infections with wild-type poliovirus. Another cause of polio today could be the improper use of the vaccine, which may cause the very disease it claims to prevent. But before we dive into the eternal debate of Pro-Vaccination and Anti-Vaxxers, I would like to present to you this video I found on youtube a few months ago.
I look forward to the day when we can finally say, "We have won the fight against Polio!"
Thank you for reading this health history and blog.
Photo credits to wikimedia commons.
Thanks to CDC for epidemiologic map.