World Polio Day: its history, importance and 3 facts

The 24th of October each year marks World Polio Day, a highly contagious disease caused by a virus, attacks the nervous system and can cause paralysis within irreversible hours. Polio spreads through interpersonal communication.

This date was chosen precisely because it coincides with the birth of the American scientist Jonas Salk (1914-1995) who developed the first effective vaccination of the disease declared successful in 1955.

In 1988, the 41st World Health Assembly adopted a resolution to eradicate polio worldwide, which led to the launch of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative, sponsored by national governments, WHO, Rotary International, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and UNICEF. With the support of key partners, the disease causes 350,000 children to be paralyzed every year. Since then, the number of polio cases has fallen by more than 99 percent, preventing about 18 million cases of polio, according to the World Health Organization.

The theme of this year's World Polio Day was 'One Day, One Focus: Ending Polio', which aims to raise awareness of polio eradication and celebrate the efforts of thousands of WHO staff and other volunteers committed to polio eradication.

Global health officials are expected to announce today a partial victory in the decades-long struggle to eradicate polio, with the elimination of a second of three strains of the virus worldwide, and the world will soon celebrate the presence of just one polio virus.

The elimination of the third type of polio virus, also known as WBV3, will be the third time in history that a human virus has been eliminated after the announcement of smallpox eradication in 1980 and the second type of polio virus in 2015.

3 basic facts about polio

- This disease mainly affects children under five years of age.

- One out of 200 cases of the disease leads to incurable paralysis, and between 5% and 10% of people with paralysis due to the cessation of their respiratory muscles to function.

- One child with poliovirus infection puts children in all countries at risk.

Prevention of the disease

There is no cure for polio, but measures can be taken to prevent it, and the polio vaccine, which is given in multiple batches, can protect the child from the evil of the disease for life.

The first type of polio virus is spreading in Afghanistan and Pakistan, where efforts to eradicate it have faced obstacles over the past two years.

Emirati efforts

His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces, published a tweet on his Twitter account yesterday: Polio, we renew our determination to redouble our efforts and continue to work for a world free of this disease… We have taken important and successful steps to achieve this humanitarian goal in cooperation with our partners in disease control and community development. ”

Attached is a video showing the significant progress made by the UAE polio vaccination campaign on the ground in Pakistan.

On World Polio Day, we renew our determination to redouble our efforts and continue to work for a world free of this disease ... com / VJF249DdB5