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Polio Kickback New cases of polio
Setback in the fight against polio: According to the World Health Organization (WHO), two children in Poland have polio. Previously, there had been no cases in Europe for years, so that the infectious disease was considered largely eradicated. Now the virus must be contained as quickly as possible by a comprehensive vaccination campaign. So far only half of the children in Ukraine have been vaccinated.
Fever, headache and vomiting are typical initial symptoms
The so-called "polio" (poliomyelitis, polio for short) is a highly contagious disease, which according to the WHO predominantly children under five years are affected. The infectious disease is caused by polioviruses and leads to permanent paralysis in one in 200 cases. Five to ten percent of them die because the respiratory muscles can also be affected by the paralysis. The virus is primarily fecal-orally e.g. transmitted through contaminated water and proliferates in the intestine. First symptoms include fever, tiredness, headache, vomiting, stiff neck and body aches.
Polio erupted in Ukraine. Image: Dr Kateryna - Fotolia WHO goal: Worldwide extinction by 2018
But until recently, polio was considered largely defeated. The World Health Organization (WHO) had already started in 1988 the Global Poliomyelitis Eradication Program, with the aim to get the disease through the worldwide use of the polio vaccine under control. In the following years, it could be pushed back so far that the WHO formulated the plan to want to completely wipe out the disease by 2018. But the fight against the dangerous infectious disease seems harder than expected. As the WHO reports, two new cases have now appeared in Europe. According to him, two small children aged four and ten months from southwestern Ukraine are affected.
Only half of the children in Ukraine have vaccine protection
Polio is so far incurable, safe protection therefore offers only the vaccine. Nevertheless, in 2014, only half of the children in Ukraine had been vaccinated, according to the information. "This is a setback," said the spokesman for the WHO Polio Control Center, Oliver Rosenbauer, to the news agency "dpa". The Ukraine has the problem that the vaccinations have fallen drastically in recent years. "Not a few have doubts about the safety of vaccines," said the expert. Accordingly, in addition to the two sick children, there would be an unknown number of people who could possibly carry and transmit the virus.
Now it's about a quick containment. According Rosenbauer a realistic project, because "the virus is not so aggressive. Now it all depends on a quick and comprehensive vaccination campaign. "
On the other hand, he considers unlikely to spread to neighboring countries, such as Poland and Slovakia, as the vaccination rate is very high there. Overall, the chances of a complete eradication of the disease, according to the WHO continue to be good, because so far only 38 cases have been known worldwide so far. These had surfaced mainly in Pakistan and Afghanistan.
If the disease is not defeated, threatens a resurgence
"We are closer than ever before," said Rosenbauer confidently. But no time should be lost, because the vaccination campaigns could not be continued permanently with the current intensity. If the goal of global eradication is not achieved soon, the disease could flare up again. This would mean the speaker of the Polio Control Center after around 200,000 sufferers a year. "We have to do the job now," he says.
Risk of introduction of poliovirus must be taken seriously
In Germany, according to the Robert Koch Institute (RKI), there was the last indigenous polio case in 1990, the last imported diseases caused by wild polioviruses from India and Egypt were registered in 1992. Nevertheless, "the risk of introduction of polioviruses to Germany by travelers from Ukraine [.] Should be taken seriously," says the RKI currently. Since the largest proportion of infected people shows no symptoms, the virus can be secretly secreted even after weeks with the stool. However, according to the assessment of the RKI, the risk of virus spreading is low in Germany due to the high polio vaccination quotas. (No)