ERADICATING INFANTILE PARALYSIS.
Infantile Paralysis, Polio or Poliomyelitis, is a terminology derived from the Greek word, POLIOS, which means grey, referring to the grey matter in the spinal cord and it is a suffix, which denotes inflammation . It is an acute infection caused by the Polio virus. The virus was first isolated in 1909 by Karl Landsteiner and Erwin Popper
It is from one person to another through the fecal-oral route, that is through contamination of food and drink. It often spread in areas with poor sanitation. The virus is shed in faeces of infected individuals and viral replication occurs in the alimentary canal, where it is capable of surviving the acidic condition.
The virus spreads throughout the body, via the lymphatic system and because it can replicate quickly, it overwhelms the host organs before an immune response can be mounted. It mainly affects young children, ages 0-5 years. Many infected victims have no symptoms, but do excrete the virus in their faesces, hence transmitting infections to other, with initial symptoms including fever, fatigue (tiredness ), vomiting and headache. Other symptoms are stiffness in the neck and pains in the limbs. 95% of cases are asymptomatic i.e. not manifesting the symptoms while the remaining 5% manifest the symptoms causing permanent paralysis. Till date, the only source of prevention for the disease is the administration of polio vaccine.
In the quest to eradicate polio worldwide, the World Health Assembly in 1988, launched the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI), championed by the World Health Organization(WHO), Rotary International, United States of America Centre for Disease Control and Prevention and United Nations Children Fund(UNICEF). It was launched then to arrest the polio endemic as more than 350,000 chidren from over 250 countries were left paralysed annually from the disease. Since then, it has been monitoring and rendering financial assistance to countries plagued by the disease.
WHO has identified Nigeria as the country with the highest figure in poliomyelitis cases, contributing 90% of the polio burden in Africa and nearly 60% of the world polio burden, along side Pakistan and Afghanistan, after India in January 2012 became the latest country to become polio free, going a full year without registering a new case. Nigeria is also recognized as the only country with all three types of polio virus viz: Type 1, Type 2 (circulating vaccine ferived ) and Type 3. Two third of the reported cases in the country were from the Northern States. Namely Borno, Kano, Sokoto, Jigawa, Kastina, Kaduna, Niger, Zamfara, Yobe and Bauchi.
In order to achieve total eradication of polio, the primary health care system across the country , must be strenghtened at the Local Government level. Without this the routine immunization programme required to maintain community immunity at a high level after being certified as polio free may not be able to maintain such tempo, resulting in the re-emergence of wild polio. Good water supply must also, be available to the people. Likewise the culture of proper disposal of faecal matters, especially in highly populated areas, must be improved upon.
In all, high quality immunization campaign and sensitive disease surveillance, are more important than ever for total eradication of polio. The re-orientation and sensitization of the people on the danger of polio must be taken more seriously.
