Polio
 Polio virus. |
The first effective polio vaccine was developed by Jonas Salk, and inoculations of children against polio began in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania on February 23, 1954. Through mass immunization, the disease was wiped out in the Americas, although it recently has re-appeared Haiti, where political strife and poverty have interfered with vaccination efforts. [1]
Young children who contract polio are likely to suffer only mild symptoms, and as result they may become permanently immune to the disease. Hence inhabitants of areas with better sanitation may actually be more susceptible to polio because fewer people have the disease as young children. People who have survived polio sometimes develop additional symptoms, notably muscle weakness, decades later; these symptoms are called post-polio syndrome.
The first medical report on poliomyelitis was by Jakob Heine in 1840. Karl Oskar Medin was the first to empirically study a poliomyelitis epidemic in 1890. The work of these two physicians has led to the disease being known as the Heine-Medin disease.
General
Polio may be spread through contact with feces or through airborne particles.Eradication Efforts
In 2004, as a result of the success in eradicating smallpox, the WHO announced a $3 billion campaign to eradicate polio worldwide by the end of 2006. [1]
Most remaining polio infections are located in two areas: the Indian sub-continent and Nigeria. Eradication efforts in the Indian sub-continent have met with a large measure of success. Most families allowed their children to take the vaccine. Some Muslim families refused due to false rumors that the vaccine causes sterility in boys. In northern Nigeria, the location of half of all documented polio cases in 2003, Muslim clerics have repeated inveighed against the vaccine as a effort by Westerners to sterilize young Nigerian Muslim girls. As of March 2004, the polio eradication efforts in northern Nigeria are largely ineffective.