QUICK UPDATE ON POLIO ERADICATION PROGRESS -- WE'RE SO CLOSE

Followers of this blog know that I'm fascinated by the international effort to eradicate polio. Wiping out this paralyzing, often deadly disease will be one of humankind's great accomplishments. The only other human disease that we've been able to eradicate is smallpox--the last spontaneous case was in 1977.

According to the Global Polio Eradication Initiative, the effort is incredibly close to success, with just 5 cases reported worldwide this year, to May 24 (vs. 16 this time last year). In the early 1950s, before the Salk and Sabin vaccines were introduced, 15,000 children died or were paralyzed by the poliovirus every year just in the United States, 500,000 worldwide.

It's taken decades of dedicated, sometimes dangerous work by scientists, international organizations, and on-the-ground health providers to reduce that number from 500,000 to 5. The goal now is to shrink it to zero.

It appears that the polio virus now survives in just a few locations--the 5 cases all occurred in Pakistan and Afghanistan, destabilized by war and refugees. In addition, all 5 cases were caused by Wild Polio Virus 1 (WPV1), meaning that the other two strains of wild polio virus, WPV 2 and 3, may already be eradicated.

Wild Polio Virus Type 3

Credit: Manuel Almagro Rivas/CreativeCommons

Massive vaccination programs of at-risk children and adults are continuing, and will need to to continue for some time even after there are no more documented cases.

We're so close . . .

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