The Erradication of Poliomyelitis: Inactivated Polio Vaccine (IPV), and Oral Polio Vaccine (OPV)

There are three main types of muscle tissue in the body: Skeletal muscle, smooth muscle and cardiac muscle. Firstly, skeletal muscle has a stripped appearance when it is examined under a microscope so it is sometimes known as striated/stripped muscle. Skeletal muscle is voluntary and this means that it is under conscious control. Secondly, there is smooth muscle which is an involuntary muscle that operates without any conscious control. This muscle is controlled by the nervous system. Smooth muscle can be found in the blood vessels and the walls of the digestive system and it helps to control digestion and blood pressure. Lastly, there is cardiac muscle which is located in in the wall of the heart. Cardiac muscle is involuntary and this means that it is not under conscious control. This is made up of a specialised type of tissue which is striated and it has its own blood supply. The contractions aid the pumping of blood through the blood vessels

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

Poliomyelitis (polio) is a disease that attacks the nervous tissue in the spinal cord and the brain stem resulting in paralysis (Document One). Polio is caused by the poliovirus, but it is unknown how this virus is acquired. The virus enters the digestive tract and stays in the intestines for up to eight weeks, and then attacks the lymphatic system, the blood stream and eventually travels to the brain and spine (Document Four). Once it is infected in one’s body, the disease is highly contagious and can be spread through contact of saliva, food, germs, or feces (Document Two). “The poliovirus causes most of its infections in the summer and fall. At one time, summer epidemics of polio were common and greatly feared” (Document Four). This may

With the last outbreak of Polio in the US being in 1979, many today have no recollection of the terror of this disease. The disease primarily infected children, and there seemed to be no pattern to who succumbed to it. No one could feel safe. Polio as a disease presents such horrors that even those who overcome it once can be plagued by its aftereffects in later life. Before vaccines, single outbreaks could devastate entire communities. One outbreak

When my daughter was a baby, and we decided to delay vaccination, a friend of my mother-in-law seemed thrilled with our decision. However, she advised to look into the polio vaccine because there wasn 't much they could do if someone did contract polio. During my research, I have found that the polio vaccine is all but completely unnecessary for anyone in the United States. Let 's take a look at some of the most interesting information I have found.

The disease poliomyelitis is more commonly known by its alternative name “polio.” The history of this disease dates back into prehistory, but major polio epidemics were not known before the twentieth century. The first clinical description of this disease was provided by a British physician named Michael Underwood, in which he described the disease as debility of the lower extremities. In the 1880s major epidemics started to occur in Europe, then made its way soon after into the United States. The first report of multiple cases was recorded in 1843 and described an outbreak that happened in Louisiana in 1841. The next large outbreak was in Boston in 1893 where there were 26 cases of poliomyelitis. The following year was the first recognized epidemic in the United States which occurred in Vermont with 132 total cases, including 18 deaths. By 1907 there were approximately 2,500 cases of polio reported in New York City alone. By 1910, epidemics of polio were regular events throughout the developed world, mostly in cities during the warmer months. In 1916 there were over 27,000 cases including more than 6,000 deaths due to polio in the United States, with more than 2,000 deaths occurring in New York City alone. Poliomyelitis hit its peak in the 1940s and 1950s; it paralyzed or killed more than half a million people per year.

Smooth muscles are found in the skin, internal organs, reproductive system, major blood vessels, and excretory system. Skeletal muscles are composed of long fibers surrounded by a membranous sheath, the sarcolemma. Since the Skeletal muscles are under control by whom ever they belong to are called voluntary muscles. This muscle is attached to two or more bones which are then attached to the skeleton by tendons. For example, head and neck muscles; contraction of these muscles produces facial expressions and head movements. They are also responsible for speech and swallowing. Skeletal muscles are the main muscles which move your body. Muscles nearly always work in coordinated groups; contraction of one muscle is accompanied by relaxation of another, while other muscles stabilize nearby joints. Then the last of the muscle types is the Cardiac Muscle or the involuntary muscles. Cardiac muscles are not under conscious control they do not react by a persons decision or movement. and are connected to the nervous system which are stimulated by autonomic impulses. Cardiac muscles are found in your internal organs like the heart or the intestine. For example; they include muscles that propel food through the intestine and those that control sweating and blood pressure.

Poliomyelitis, also commonly known as polio, is a viral infection that, at one point was virtually eradicated in the US (SOURCE). The last major epidemic of polio was in the early 1950's (SOURCE). Polio was characterized in one of three ways: nonparalytic

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.

From the late Egyptian era to the early 1900’s, humans were perplexed about why people were suddenly getting paralyzed without warning. It wasn’t until research skills and technology accessibility improved that scientists were able to grasp the idea that it was all caused by the Poliomyelitis virus. Polio began ravaging through the world in the twentieth century, crippling children, and, even after the discovery of numerous vaccines, is still relentless enough that it infects children today.

Poliomyelitis also called Polio or infantile paralysis describes an acute viral infectious disease which is generally transmitted by the oral fecal route. The condition is characterized by the downwards flexed foot, withered limbs associated with muscle atrophy following the loss of motor innervations in the limb. The symptoms, location, extent and persistence of the paralysis caused depends on the degree of the damage to the anterior horn neurons and the number of neurons affected. The forms of the disease include the abortive poliomyelitis which is the most common, with symptoms such as malaise; fever and vomiting that subside in few days. The nonparalytic poliomyelitis (aseptic meningitis) has symptoms such as stiff neck and pain in the back and neck. This subsides in 2-10 days. This may advance to the paralytic Poliomyelitis resulting from the lower motor neuron damage. The post Poliomyelitis is characterized by muscle atrophy, especially observed in individuals decades after their experience with paralytic Poliomyelitis. Immunity to the type causing the infection is permanent especially for the types- 1, 2 and 3. Maternal passive immunity is transferred to the offspring and disappears during the first 6 months of life. Humans are the only reservoir for the infection. The Global Polio Eradication initiative embarked upon by the World Health organization, Rotary International, and the UNICEF gives hope of achieving the desired “ global polio free world The

“A 1916 Polio epidemic in the United States killed 6,000 people and paralyzed 27,000 more” (“Polio Vaccine”). This lead to the creation of the polio vaccine that has helped to prevent polio for a very long time. The IPV and OPV vaccines played a huge role in all of this. Jonas Salk, who created the IPV vaccine and Albert Sabin, who created the OPV vaccine saved millions of people all around the world from polio (Petersen, Jennifer B). The IPV and OPV polio vaccine helped eliminate polio from the United States and helped prevent polio in other parts of the world (“Polio Vaccine”).

Paralysis caused by polio is very rare, of the total amount of individuals who contract the virus, “less than 1%” become paralyzed (NYSDOH, 2014).

Polio or poliomyelitis is an infectious disease that is caused by the poliovirus. The poliovirus is a virus that only infects humans and it lives in a person’s throat, intestines and feces. The etiological factors that are associated with polio are feces containing the virus, food and water contaminated by fecal matter with the disease, and through the sneeze or cough of an infected individual. The primary form of contracting polio is through fecal-oral transmission. A person can have feces on their hand and can touch objects, that babies can put in their mouth, or can touch other human beings, where the individual being touched may touch their mouth, overall spreading the disease. This infectious disease is categorized by several symptoms, which include: fever, sore throat, headache, fatigue, neck pain, back pain, muscle weakness, meningitis, and vomiting. However, these symptoms only appear in the type of polio that doesn 't lead to paralysis and death, non paralytic polio or abortive polio. These symptoms usually last for one to ten days. The most severe type of polio infection is one that leads to paralytic polio. Paralytic polio can be classified in three ways: spinal polio, in which the spine is the affected body part, bulbar polio, in which the brain is affected by the virus, or bulbospinal polio, which affects both the brain and the spinal cord. Symptoms of paralytic polio include: paralysis, loss of reflexes, and severe muscle aches or weakness. Ultimately

Polio or poliomyelitis was derived from the Greek words “polio” meaning grey and “myelos” meaning marrow which refers to the grey matter of the spinal cord and ‘itis’ meaning inflammation; therefore poliomyelitis is inflammation of grey matter of the spinal cord (www.wikipedia.com). It is a viral disease caused by the polio virus which belongs to the enterovirus genus; enterovirus because it infects and replicates in the intestinal epithelial and lymphoid (tonsils, Peyer’s patches) cells or tissues, they then enter the central nervous system (CNS) through the blood and infect the motor neurons. The replication in tonsils results in virus seen in pharyngeal secretions (Clinical Microbiology by Mark Gladwin and Bill Trattler). The three serotypes of polio virus are type 1, 2 and 3, all three can cause and produce the same symptom with type 1 the most common form and mostly associated with paralysis. Polio was one of the most feared childhood diseases of the 20th century; it affected mostly children under the age of five. Most children who were infected at this stage were asymptomatic or showed mild flu like symptoms and few paralytic complications were seen among infected children and those who survived the polio attack developed lifelong immunity to the virus. As improvements in sanitation were made over the years, fewer children were exposed to polio virus infection but adolescents and adults became infected through their contact with infected individuals and