The article “India brings hope to stalled fight against polio” can be found at: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2011/02/20/ap/health/main20034144.shtml.
This article is about the World Health Assembly trying to eradicate the polio virus, similar to the way small pox was eradicated. Most people who get polio never show any symptoms at all. They are completely healthy and only pass the virus on through there stools. Some people show symptoms similar to the flu, so they think nothing of it; they too pass the virus on in there stools. For the people who do show symptoms, they are shown in the form of crippled limbs. People who get polio never regain ability to use the limb fully again. For obvious reasons, Polio thrives in third world countries and places that have poor sanitation and bad plumbing.
When the World Health finally eradicated the tricky disease called small pox, they turned their attention to Polio. The reasons the World Health think they can eradicate the polio virus is because it is spread from person to person. They would not be capable of doing so if the disease spread from an animal or from being in the air. The World Health Assembly started a global effort in 1988 to eradicate the virus by 2000. It was wiped out across the Americas by 1991; the Western Pacific by 1998; and Europe by 1999. But the virus still remains today in very small cases in four countries, each present their own challenge. In Afghanistan and Pakistan, disorder, conflict and violence made it difficult to get the vaccine to all the children. In Nigeria, Muslim leaders wouldn’t take the vaccine in a plot to sterilize their kids. And in India, malnutrition and constant diarrhea made children too weak to process the vaccine properly.
When a house is given the vaccine, the World Health volunteer will color every person’s left pinky nails with a permanent purple marker to keep track of who has received the vaccine. Then when he or she leaves they will paint the date and a "P'' on the house, showing that all the children who live there are protected. If the house is marked with an "X" it represents that some have been missed. Another World Health volunteer follows to ensure no houses have been wrongly marked.
Let’s hope that with persistence and help from Bill Gates and many other generous and caring people that soon the polio virus like small pox will completely be eradicated around the world.
For periods of time ( I wanna say around the industrial revolution maybe...) and i guess even today Man has considered sickness to bend to his will. The belief that Man has the resources and discoveries to eradicate most diseases and sicknesses using science. Eradicating Polio and Small Pox are the first steps to actually realizing that dream.
ReplyDeleteIs it possible that man is actually going down the road of eliminating sicknesses, or are new diseases like HIV and MDR bacteria making it impossible to achieve that ideal?
It's interesting to note that the only diseases that mankind considers to be possible to eradicate are those that are passed on from human to human. If we are to liberate ourselves from the spread of disease how will we deal with those that spread through zoonosis (animal to human)? Certainly through the progressive nature of science we will have to deal with this issue eventually, but at what point will science and ethics cross paths?
ReplyDeleteIt is great news to hear that yet another disease is becoming close to being eradicated. It was hard enough to eradicate small pox from the world, but to think that yet another disease is about to be eradicated is amazing. It is yet another large step for since. Like what Joel was saying this could bring man closer to eradicating other deadly diseases like HIV. Humans are eliminating these awful diseases one step at a time and it is great to know that there wont be any future outbreaks. What I wonder now is what will be the next disease to be eradicated?
ReplyDeleteI really liked how you chose this topic. Since we've been learning about Polio, and the efforts for it to be eraticated, this was an awesome article to write about. Hopefully Polio will be eraticated completely, and we can have another dangerous epidemic disease behind us, without fear it will return. Its also great to see the World Health Orginization working so hard for the safety of others.
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