National Immunization Awareness Month: The Eradication of Polio
After notable outbreaks in the 19th century, it wasn’t until the early 1900s that people in the healthcare community began to see how contagious the disease actually is. The Polio Virus is a destructive disease that is marked by susceptibility to other diseases, general immune responses and in some cases, paralysis and death due to the viruses attack on muscular function, most notably to breath. People who fall victim to paralysis are formally diagnosed with Poliomyelitis, the most severe form of infection for the virus. Because of its high level of contagion, the virus has been historically difficult to control and became a central focus for virologists well into the 20th century. Before we can see the virus’s effects, it’s best to know exactly where and how people throughout history have been affected by the disease.
Polio is considered by researchers to be a long existent disease with familiar descriptors and images suggesting polio infection reaching back to Egyptian society as early as 1500 BCE. Though it would not be until Michael Underwood, a doctor of pediatrics, that we would receive a formal observation and description of Polio in children in 1789. Coincidentally around the same time Edward Jenner was conducting his research into a cure for smallpox. It was the notable outbreaks of the 19th century, including an American outbreak in 1894 that appears to have served as a catalyst for the increase of research toward the disease. Into the 20th century, the developed world would see sporadic increases in the disease, creating a noticeable degree of public fear. Communities became apprehensive to let their children out to play with others and they were fearful of public places where the virus would be highly contractible.
After bouncing between researchers from around the world, and a few Nobel Prizes later, Jonas Salk announced in 1953 that a vaccine had been discovered. Several revisions would take place over the following decade by separate researchers. By the end of the 1950’s roughly a half-billion people had received the vaccine driving infection rates and paralytic symptoms from contraction down significantly. Industrialized and higher developed nations were able to address the disease rather quickly, but by the middle of the 1970s, the World Health Organization (WHO) created initiatives along with the Pan America Health Organization in the following decade with the intention of mass eradication in underdeveloped countries.
Today, researchers concern less about a pandemic than they do keeping track of where the disease periodically arises in the world, despite best efforts at eradication. Aside from the difficulty of reaching every person, different countries and communities, largely through leaders and misinformation, have shown resistance to allow healthcare workers to immunize people. The recommendation for vaccination today is to receive it in early childhood. In the case of American infection rates, the United States has not seen a case since 1979 and the world is moving ever slowly toward total immunization.
If you would like to learn more about the polio vaccine, our information was sourced from The CDC and Britannica