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What is Polio?
Polio is a highly infectious disease caused by a virus. It invades the nervous system, and can cause total paralysis in a matter of hours. The virus spreads person-to-person primarily through fecal-oral transmission, or occasionally via contaminated water or food, multiplying in the intestines.
What are the symptoms of Polio?
Fever, sore throat, headache, vomiting, fatigue, back and neck pain or stiffness, muscle weakness, loss of reflexes, and loose and floppy limbs (flaccid paralysis), often worse on one side. One in 200 infections leads to irreversible paralysis, usually in the legs, and 5% to 10% of those paralyzed die when their breathing muscles become immobilized.
What is the global scenario like?
Since 1988, over 2.5 billion children have been immunized against polio globally. Polio cases declined from approximately 350,000 in 1988 to 407 in 2013, a 99% reduction. Four WHO regions are now certified polio-free: the Americas, Europe, South-East Asia and the Western Pacific. Only three countries remain endemic: Afghanistan, Nigeria, and Pakistan.
What is Polio's status in Pakistan?
Pakistan remains one of three polio-endemic countries. Supplementary immunization activities began in 2000, with 119 reported cases that year; by 2007 this dropped to 32 cases but rose again in subsequent years, and Pakistan reported the world's highest caseload in 2011. Over 100 supplementary immunization activities have taken place since 2000, and the Government declared a national emergency, establishing the National Emergency Action Plan for polio eradication in 2011.
How do you prevent Polio?
Oral Polio Vaccine (OPV) is administered as drops by mouth at birth to all children, and then again at 6 weeks, 10 weeks and 14 weeks of age.
Vaccine at a glance
Oral Polio Vaccine (OPV)
- Given at birth, then at 6, 10, and 14 weeks of age
- Given free of charge through EPI Sindh
- Also delivered through supplementary campaigns