October 24 is World Polio Day.
In the course of 2022, more than 20,000 children who were not vaccinated in time were planned to be vaccinated against poliomyelitis in the Lviv Region, 16,000 of them have already been vaccinated. This was reported in the Lviv Regional Center for Disease Control and Prevention of the Ministry of Health.
The Center notes that in the Lviv region, the level of vaccination coverage of children under one year old is insufficient – 43% against the required 95%.
“This disease has been known since ancient times, but it has never caused extraordinary epidemics. As a rule, these are cases of outbreaks.
Poliomyelitis is dangerous because you can die from it. The disease is caused by the poliomyelitis virus, which can spread in different ways – most often through drinking water, through food, through shared objects (for children – these are children’s toys), which can be touched by one child and transmitted to another. Less commonly, the virus can be transmitted by airborne droplets through saliva produced by a person infected with poliovirus. The source of the virus is a person with polio, regardless of the clinical form of the person. Thus, only one out of ten polio patients shows impaired movement function or, at worst, impaired cardiac or respiratory muscle function.
There may be milder manifestations – a disorder of the gastrointestinal tract, abdominal pain, diarrhea, symptoms of an acute respiratory disease. Therefore, it is very important for doctors to conduct a stool examination to determine the presence of the polio virus when applying for medical assistance of a child with such symptoms,” says Director General of the Lviv Regional Center for Disease Control and Prevention of the Ministry of Health Nataliya Ivanchenko.
There is still no cure for polio, so vaccination is the only way to protect against the disease.
There are two types of polio vaccine:
Inactivated – it is injected;
Live – in the form of drops.
In Ukraine, there is a calendar of preventive vaccinations in order to make the child’s body unfavorable to the polio virus with the most optimal time intervals after the administration of vaccine doses.
According to the Calendar, vaccination is carried out at the age: at two months and at four months an inactivated vaccine is administered. At six and eighteen months, at 6 years and 14 years, a live vaccine is administered.
Contact your family doctor to find out how and when you can get the polio vaccine. Lviv Oblast is provided with a full volume of poliomyelitis vaccine.
On October 24, the whole world celebrates the day of fight against poliomyelitis
This day was started in 1988 by the World Health Assembly, which adopted a resolution on the global eradication of poliomyelitis. Since then, the incidence of polio worldwide has decreased by 99% and the eradication of the human disease has begun, the second time in history since smallpox in 1980.
Poliomyelitis is a highly contagious infectious disease caused by the polio virus. It affects the nervous system and can cause complete paralysis in a matter of hours. It is transmitted from person to person mainly by the fecal-oral route and multiplies in the intestines. Initial symptoms include fever, fatigue, headache, vomiting, and pain in the neck and limbs.
“During the COVID-19 pandemic, the war in Ukraine, and migration processes among the population, the rates of polio vaccination coverage among children decreased. Currently, this number is less than 50% of the total population that is subject to vaccination.
The disease occurs as a result of infection with one of the three types of poliomyelitis viruses. The virus tolerates freezing and drying well. It is not destroyed by digestive juices and antibiotics. It dies when boiled, under the influence of ultraviolet radiation and disinfectants,” said Nataliya Ivanchenko, a freelance epidemiology specialist of the Department of Health Protection.
“Among the paralyzed, 5-10% die due to paralysis of the respiratory muscles. Children under the age of 5 are mainly affected by poliomyelitis. However, a person of any age who has not been vaccinated can contract the disease. There is no cure for polio, it can only be prevented.
The polio vaccine can protect a child for life. There are two vaccines: oral and inactivated. They are effective and safe. This is the best possible protection of the population,” said Oksana Pushkaryova, an epidemiology expert of the Department of Health Protection.
If someone contracted polio as a child or young adult, but retains or partially recovers weakened limb muscles, they may become weaker in late adulthood.
This is post-polio syndrome (PPS), a condition that can affect polio survivors decades after they have recovered from their primary poliovirus infection.
Endemic transmission of wild poliovirus continues in areas of Afghanistan and Pakistan. Failure to stop polio in these last remaining regions could lead to a global resurgence of the disease. This is why it is extremely important to ensure that polio is completely eradicated once and for all.