POLIO ERADICATION UPDATE 4-30-21

 As Zerospinzone followers know, I'm fascinated by the quest not just to control or cure deadly diseases, but to eradicate them completely. The scourge of smallpox was defeated in 1980, and we've been closing in on polio since the deployment of the first (Salk, inactivated virus) vaccine in 1954, country by country, continent by continent.

Polio has been with us for thousands of years

This depiction is from Egypt's 18th Dynasty--1403 to 1365 BC

Credit: Deutsches Grünes Kreuz

Today, the wild polio virus hangs on in just two countries, Pakistan and Afghanistan, with just one case reported in each of those countries so far this year. We may really be on the verge of totally eliminating the wild polio virus from Planet Earth.

Even when that remarkable feat has been accomplished, the battle won't be over. The oral polio vaccines that have been so incredibly successful have one flaw--the attenuated viruses they use very occasionally mutate back into disease-causing variants. So far this year there have been 73 cases in 10 countries, fewer than last year at this time, but still a serious problem. 

The Global Polio Eradication Initiative has developed and initiated a strategy or endgame to deal with this issue. They plan to gradually phase out the massive provision of attenuated oral vaccines, phase in the use of an inactivated-virus vaccine as needed, and, hopefully, bring the millennial reign of polio to an end.

I'll continue to report on their progress towards this grand goal.

-----

REA 4-30-21