A few of us can still remember the sight of children in iron lungs, a type of pressure chamber that aided those infected with paralytic polio.
The increase and decrease inside the chamber was the only way to assist the victim's breathing.
Those who contracted polio rarely survived and if they did, they were paralyzed for life.
Deaths from polio can be traced back throughout human history.
It is a disease most often associated with poor sanitation, malnutrition, and poor housing conditions.
Polio is primarily a disease that affects the gastrointestinal tract.
Typically, in healthy individuals, the virus is overcome by the immune system and the patient recovers without incident.
In a small percentage of the cases, the virus makes its way into the spinal cord and even the brainstem.
Under these circumstances it can cause crippling and even fatal paralysis.
There is no cure for polio, but early on in the 1950's there were attempts to prevent it with the use of gamma globulin.
Finally, in l955, Jonas Salk developed an inactivate virus vaccine that provided excellent results.
Later, Sabin's oral polio virus vaccine replaced the Salk vaccine for economical reasons.
Up until the early 2000's, Sabins oral vaccine was the only vaccine used in the prevention of polio.
Recently, it has been discovered that many of those receiving the Sabin vaccine and having undiagnosed weakened immune systems can harbor the active virus and shed the infective polio virus for many years after immunization.
The problem lies in the large number of undiagnosed vaccine recipients receiving the oral polio virus vaccine (OPV).
OPV viruses can revert to their wild form within the body of immune-compromised recipients and become infective.
The person becomes what is called "a chronic excreter" shedding live poliovirus and infecting those around them for years.
They are generally discovered once they develop polio symptoms years after receiving the vaccine.
Attempts worldwide to identify and locate these polio excreters have failed.
Assumedly, these people are not even aware they are immune-deficient nor do they have any polio symptoms.
Recently, most industrialized nations including the United States began using the Salk inactivated polio virus (IPV) vaccine in which the virus is stripped of its ability to become infective and thus, prevent reversion to the wild form again.
Nevertheless, the presence of thousands (or more) undiagnosed chronic polio excreters throws a wrench into the efforts of global health organizations such as the World Health Organization (that put for the Global Polio Eradication Initiative) to eradicate polio forever.
The problem is most prevalent in Africa where polio vaccine efforts have had mixed success as many countries cut back their vaccination efforts due to finances.
This has left a portion of the population still susceptible to polio infections
The increase and decrease inside the chamber was the only way to assist the victim's breathing.
Those who contracted polio rarely survived and if they did, they were paralyzed for life.
Deaths from polio can be traced back throughout human history.
It is a disease most often associated with poor sanitation, malnutrition, and poor housing conditions.
Polio is primarily a disease that affects the gastrointestinal tract.
Typically, in healthy individuals, the virus is overcome by the immune system and the patient recovers without incident.
In a small percentage of the cases, the virus makes its way into the spinal cord and even the brainstem.
Under these circumstances it can cause crippling and even fatal paralysis.
There is no cure for polio, but early on in the 1950's there were attempts to prevent it with the use of gamma globulin.
Finally, in l955, Jonas Salk developed an inactivate virus vaccine that provided excellent results.
Later, Sabin's oral polio virus vaccine replaced the Salk vaccine for economical reasons.
Up until the early 2000's, Sabins oral vaccine was the only vaccine used in the prevention of polio.
Recently, it has been discovered that many of those receiving the Sabin vaccine and having undiagnosed weakened immune systems can harbor the active virus and shed the infective polio virus for many years after immunization.
The problem lies in the large number of undiagnosed vaccine recipients receiving the oral polio virus vaccine (OPV).
OPV viruses can revert to their wild form within the body of immune-compromised recipients and become infective.
The person becomes what is called "a chronic excreter" shedding live poliovirus and infecting those around them for years.
They are generally discovered once they develop polio symptoms years after receiving the vaccine.
Attempts worldwide to identify and locate these polio excreters have failed.
Assumedly, these people are not even aware they are immune-deficient nor do they have any polio symptoms.
Recently, most industrialized nations including the United States began using the Salk inactivated polio virus (IPV) vaccine in which the virus is stripped of its ability to become infective and thus, prevent reversion to the wild form again.
Nevertheless, the presence of thousands (or more) undiagnosed chronic polio excreters throws a wrench into the efforts of global health organizations such as the World Health Organization (that put for the Global Polio Eradication Initiative) to eradicate polio forever.
The problem is most prevalent in Africa where polio vaccine efforts have had mixed success as many countries cut back their vaccination efforts due to finances.
This has left a portion of the population still susceptible to polio infections
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