Polio eradication programme reaches 'major milestone'

[Northerner]

A "major milestone" in the battle to eliminate polio globally has been reached, the US Centres for Disease Control (CDC) has said.

Its experts think a second of the three forms of poliovirus has been eliminated after mass vaccination campaigns.

Wild poliovirus type 3 has not been detected for more than two years. Type 2 was eradicated in 1999.

Experts said the world was "closer than ever" to defeating polio but the situation in Pakistan was worrying.

Polio is highly infectious and causes paralysis in up to one in 200 people. Some children die when the muscles that help them breathe stop working.

But there has been huge progress in eliminating the disease. Cases have fallen from 350,000 in 1988 to 416 in 2013.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-30056311

 

[trophywench]

Good grief - I thought it was eradicated already!

We had the jabs, when they were first 'out' - was it the Salk vaccine then? - 3 and a booster ,when we were little. Then we went somewhere hot and exotic 30+ years later (possibly Goa or Kerala) and I had a sugar lump booster then. We discussed it being sugar (not that one sugar lump is likely to cause much mayhem) and the nurse said you could have it squirted at the back of your throat if you wanted to.

On balance, the sugar would still win !

 

[zuludog]

You can make all the vaccines you want, and plan all the programmes, but they're not much use if the Muslim terrorists go round shooting the nurses, are they?

 

[AlisonM]

I had mine on a sugar cube more than 50 years ago. My mum was determined as we had a couple of friends who'd been damaged by the effects, though neither was bad enough to need an iron lung. It would be wonderful to have this horrid disease gone for good.

 

[trophywench]

I was 6 when the jabs came to our Doctors - 1956 Alison! - and my mother was about 2nd in the queue, with us! 58 years ago .......