World Polio Day falls on every 24th day of October to honor global efforts toward a polio-free world and highlight the tireless contributions on the frontlines to eradicate polio from every corner of the world. Rotary and its partners in the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI) are confident that they are making progress in achieving a polio-free world.
But the re-emergence of poliovirus in different parts of the world is concerning news to the global effort. Thus, this year's World Polio Day also underscores the need for eradication to prevent an outbreak.
World Polio Day History and Significance
The effects of poliovirus have been known since ancient times based on the depictions found in Egyptian paintings and carvings that show people with withered limbs and young children walking with canes, says an article in Merazone. But it was not until 1789 that the clinical description was given by English physician Michael Underwood, describing it as a "debility of the lower extremities."
By the 19th century, the work of physicians Jakob Heine (1840) and Karl Oskar Medin (1890) has given it the name Heine-Medin disease, which was later called infantile paralysis when it spread to children. Polio infections were rarely seen before six months of age and most cases were occurring in children six months to four years of age.
Although improvements were made in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, they increased the proportion of children and adults at risk of paralytic polio infection by reducing childhood exposure and immunity. By the 1900s, polio outbreaks occurred in Europe, North America, Australia, New Zealand, and all over the world even in developing countries.
Rotary International established World Polio Day in 1985 to commemorate the birth of Jonas Salk who led the first team to develop the polio vaccine. In 1994, the Western Hemisphere was declared polio-free thanks to extensive vaccination efforts. Today, vaccination efforts are being conducted in the remaining countries with polio cases.
The annual celebration is also observed to mark the progress of global efforts toward polio eradication. Global organizations urge parents and guardians to vaccinate their children against this disease as there is no other treatment for this disease other than vaccination.
End Polio Now: "Delivering on a Promise"
Polio is not yet 100% eradicated despite the annual number of wild poliovirus cases having declined by more than 99.9% worldwide since the GPEI was launched. A press release from Edmonds College reports that Afghanistan and Pakistan are the two remaining polio-endemic countries.
But the US has also joined a list of 30 countries where circulating vaccine-derived polioviruses (cVDPVs) have been identified. This type of infection occurs when local immunity to poliovirus is low enough to allow prolonged transmission of the original weakened virus in the oral polio vaccine, which is no longer given in the country. Experts warn that the virus could mutate and regain its ability to infect.
The theme for this year's World Polio Day is "Delivering on a Promise." GPEI has launched the Polio Eradication Strategy 2022 - 2026 on June 2021 to deliver on a promise made 33 years ago during the 41st World Health Assembly.
Per the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), GPEI's updated strategy outlines a coordinated approach to interrupt wild poliovirus type 1 transmission in Afghanistan and Pakistan and to stop outbreaks of cVDPVs in under-immunized communities.
World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus and Rotary International President Jennifer Jones will discuss the efforts of the two organizations to eradicate the debilitating disease and how they will continue to work together to achieve a polio-free world.
Check out more news and information on Polio in Science Times.
