Polio : A Dangerous Disease

Polio an American story is a scholarly readable and informative book which covers the lives of many American eminent scientists who struggled a lot to eradicate polio. This book mainly focuses on the mid twentieth century where the people are very eager to find a vaccine to eradicate polio .This book also covers the entire topics from appearance of polio symptoms to post polio syndrome which shows the valuable thesis done by David M. Oshinsky.

Poliomyelitis was a highly infectious disease that spread through many Americans in the early 20th century. As a matter of fact, over 3,000 Americans died of the disease each year. Families were overwhelmingly desperate for doctors to find a cure. When one suffered from polio, they generally experienced painful symptoms which included not only fatigue and muscle weakness, but even death. Therefore, when the polio vaccine was introduced by scientist Jonas Salk in 1953, it greatly contributed to Americans in numerous positive ways. Environmentally, the vaccine saved countless young American lives affected by the disease thus decreasing American mortality rates. Socially, the polio vaccine convenienced families who were either directly afflicted

According to History of Polio Vaccine written by Anda Baicus the polio epidemic, in the United States, started in the summer of 1916, and by the 1950s the lives of many Americans had been effected. The polio virus mostly affected the lives of children and infants, making it even more disheartening. The disease was spread by contaminated water and when people are in contact with feces. Polio was spread through family members, friends, school mates, and even total strangers, making the epidemic even worse (Baicus). Polio was a disease that nobody wanted to come in contact

Polio or poliomyelitis was one of the most frightening diseases to parents and their children in the early 20th century. Polio has since been researched and eradicated in many countries but still continues to be a problem in others.

In 1976, Dr. Jonah Salk, creator of the killed-virus vaccine used in the 1950s, testified that the live-virus vaccine (used almost exclusively from the 1960s-2000s in the U.S.) was the “principle if not sole cause” of all reported polio cases since 1961 in the United States.

The discovery of the polio vaccine was an important medical and scientific breakthrough because it saved many lives since the 1950s. In the summer of 1916 the great polio epidemic struck the United states. By the 1950s hundreds of thousands of people had been struck by the poliomyelitis. The highest number of cases occurred in 1953 with over 50,000 people infected with the virus.

Starting as a distinctive rash, smallpox progresses into painful blisters and ultimately ends in permeate disfigurement and often death. This incredibly contagious disease claimed the lives of roughly 300 million to 500 million people in Europe until the 19th century. Thanks to widespread vaccination, the number of American smallpox victims decreased from 100,000 people in 1921, to less than 50 in 1939. Today smallpox is virtually nonexistent, and vaccinations are no longer necessary. Another disease known for its painfully unpleasant symptoms and high mortality rate is Polio. Polio caused more than 15,000 cases of paralysis in the US in the 1950s. After a vaccine was developed and administered rapidly, less than 100 Americans suffered from polio in the 1960s. Since then, there haven’t been any reported cases of Polio originating in the US. When vaccinated at high rates, a population can dramatically

Polio reached the height of its pandemic proportions in the first half of the nineteenth century.[2] The creation of the first safe and effective poliovirus vaccine by Dr. Jonas Salk in 1955 made immediate and profound impacts in the incidence of disease. For example, in the United States two years prior to the development of the vaccine, the average number of polio cases was greater than 45,000. In 1962, just seven years after the advent of vaccination, that number diminished to 910.[2] The effectiveness of the vaccine soon prompted health officials to extend the application of immunization worldwide. In 1988, the World Health Assembly resolved to eradicate poliomyelitis by the year 2000 and by 1999, global incidence of the disease dropped by approximately

Polio or poliomyelitis is a viral infection that normally affects kids below the age of 5years old. This childhood killer disease has been around for my centuries. Polio was first discovered my Jacob Heine in 1840 and later identified by Karl Landsteiner as poliomyelitis caused by polio virus from the enteric family of viruses. The polio virus is acquired through oral-fecal transmission. The Latin name simply means grey matter, and it is meaning inflation. There is a more serious form that can spread to the brain called polio encephalitis. The world over have cerebrated for the almost eradication of polio through improved sanitation, advancement in access to clean drinking water and aggressive vaccination campaign. There are challenges in recent years because the polio virus has re-emerged in places like Syria, Cameroun, Pakistan and Nigeria among others. In a CNN cable television report the cases of polio in Syria in particular is alarming, there are 100s of new polio cases due to failure of the health system because of a raging civil, sectarian war. The case of Pakistan and Nigeria are of religious extremism where they belief the vaccines are causing harm to their children. These are challenges faced with the eradication of this deadly childhood disease to name a few. The problem is not limited to only these countries, even in the United States of America are some Christian extremist who belief this vaccines makes their children sick. The world health organization (WHO),

During the 1940s and 1950s, iron-lungs supported breathing, allowing time for patients to recover from their infection, but sometimes the nerve-damage and paralysis were permanent. Hundreds of thousands of people used to catch polio every year with one in 200 infections leading to irreversible paralysis and 5 to 10% of these people dying when their breathing muscles become immobilized. Polio still cannot be cured but it can be prevented by vaccination. Thanks to vaccination, polio cases have decreased by over 99% since 1988, from an estimated 350,000 cases then, to 416 reported cases worldwide in 2013. The reduction is the result of the global effort to eradicate the disease. More than 10 million people are walking today, who would otherwise

The eradication of polio is not too far off in the future, since wild polio last reported case was back in 2012 there is hope that the world may see the end of the days of polio all together. The first step in the eradication is to eliminate Sabin derived polio virus due to its prolonged replication period that could potentially reestablish endemic and pandemic transmission. This will be accomplished with a world effort, everywhere needs to be on board to make this plan effective. Inactive polio vaccination would have to be added to the already oral polio vaccination, once this is done the goal is to take the trivalent polio vaccine and replace it with bivalent polio vaccine. Three principles need to be followed when withdrawing all oral polio

Poliomyelitis has been around longer than one can imagine. According to an article written by Rogers, polio first appeared in Norway and Sweden around 1870s and 1880s. Later on, paralytic polio outbreaks occurred in the United States during 1890s. Decades later, it became a major epidemic because lot of people became infected, many people died and some people developed disabilities (A Paralyzing Fear, 1998). Since the virus was discovered, scientists such as Brodie, Kolmer, Enders, Salk, Sabin, and Koprowski, had been trying to find a cure or a vaccine that could help stop the disease. The fight against polio and the search for a cure happened during one of America’s most important presidents who were infected with poliomyelitis. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who rescued the American people from The Great Depression and War World II, was a victim of this deadly virus.

The polio vaccine helped to prevent polio all around the world. It was invented in 1955. It eliminated polio in the U.S. and is trying to do the same in other parts of the world. There are 2 types of vaccine: The IPV and OPV vaccines. The IPV vaccine, created by Jonas Salk, and the OPV vaccine, created by Albert Sabin. Both of

The 1952 polio epidemic became the worst outbreak, of the nearly 58,000 cases reported 3,145 died and 21,269 were left with mild to disabling paralysis. Three years later, Dr. Jonas Salk from The University of Pittsburgh, became a national hero when he developed the first safe and effective polio vaccine in 1955 with the support of the March of Dimes. In the two years before the vaccine was, widely available, the average number of polio cases was more than 45,000. By 1962, that number had dropped to 910. By 1979, the virus had been completely eliminated across the country. There is no cure for polio once a person becomes infected. Therefore, treatments include antibiotics, pain killers, ventilators to help breathing, and moderate exercise. The disease can kill and remains incurable, but vaccines have assisted in almost total eradication in the world. Polio vaccination in the United States is still recommended because of the risk of imported cases, children are recommended to receive the inactivated polio vaccine at 2 months and 4 months of age, and then twice more before entering elementary

Polio was in deed around for centuries and more-so prior to the epidemic however, back in the 1800’s polio was a uncommon thing, or because there were very cases that have very few symptoms that later went away. Some suggest that since many people lived in rural area , small town and cities and under what some would say unsanitary conditions it was because of that, it led to their polio exposure early on and reduced the likelihood of developing it and passing it to child, and if the child did develop symptoms their own body possessed the immunity needed to fight the disease. It was also believed that polio was a disease of filth and for the impoverished however, it was quickly changed to the disease of “cleanliness”. This only impacted the spread of this