After years of intense immunization campaigns with oral vaccines, more than 155,000 people in charge of these campaigns and more than 172 million children vaccinated, next March WHO (World Health Organization) will declare polio officially eradicated in India after three years without having produced any new cases.
Wonderful news for the children of the country, who see as the ghost of this terrible disease, which in the year 85 it infected more than 150,000 children, moves away after years of having been the epicenter of her. And of course, for the scientific community, because this is the end of a long war that has ended in a great victory.
We have reached this milestone thanks to consistent and persevering efforts, R. K. Saboo, one of the founders of the Indian polio program, told The Times of India.
However, the founders of the program will not let their guard down and for the next year they will continue to vaccinate through injectable inactive polio vaccines in the most risky states.
The last case of polio registered in the country was 3 years ago, A two-year-old girl in the northwest region of the country. Something incredible compared to the 43 cases of 2010, 741 of 2009, 6,028 of 1991 or 150,000 of 1985. There is no doubt that all this would not have been possible without the firm commitment of politicians and health authorities of the Asian giant.
WHO declares a polio-free country after one year without a case and considers that the disease has been eradicated if a new infection is not registered in three years.
Although this month would be three years old without any registered case, WHO will wait until next March to declare polio as a disease eradicated in India.
Remember that This same body set itself the objective of eradicating polio worldwide before 2004. We have passed a little of the initial objective, but this last step has been a giant step.
All this should make us understand the importance of mass vaccinations in group protection, which thanks to all this a disease that has been so devastating throughout history (evidence of it has been recovered in the era and the pharaohs) and which has affected so many children can finally be eradicated from the face of the earth.
The poliomyelitis, also known as polio or infantile paralysis, is a disease caused by poliovirus virus It can affect the nerves causing paralysis.
The virus It is transmitted by contact with infected people, or their secretions, enters through the nose or mouth and multiplies in the intestine with a period of incubation generally asymptomatic of 7 and 14 days on average After that time the virus is absorbed and spread through the blood and lymphatic system from where attack the nerves of his host being able to reach the medulla and the brain where the damage is usually irreversible.
The virus can cause pneumonia, heart failure, muscle weakness, loss of bowel function, pulmonary edema, urinary infections and in the worst case, death.
The polio vaccine effectively prevents polio in most people (effectiveness is greater than 90%).
Today should be one of those days to celebrate because today our children are a little safer.
