By Archana Bhasin

Poliomyelitis is a viral disease that can affect nerves and can lead to partial or full paralysis.

Polio is caused by a very infectious enterovirus, poliovirus (PV), which primarily affects young children and is spread through direct person-to-person contact, with infected mucus, sfeces, or by contact with food and water contaminated by feces of another infected individual. The virus multiplies in the gastrointestinal tract where it can also invade the nervous system, causing permanent neurological damage in some individuals.polioviruschildren

Early symptoms of paralytic polio include high fever, headache, stiffness in the back and neck, asymmetrical weakness of various muscles and sensitivity to touch.

Polio (poliomyelitis) mainly affects children under five years of age There is no cure, but there are safe and effective vaccines. Therefore, the strategy to eradicate polio is based on preventing infection by immunizing every child to stop transmission and ultimately make the world polio free.

The vaccine prevents spread of the poliovirus from the gastrointestinal tract to the nervous system where paralytic disease develops.

Currently, four doses of inactivated polio vaccine (IPV) are recommended for children when they are 2 months old, 4 months old, 6-18 months old, and finally at 4-6 years of age.recommended for children Due to vaccination programs, there have been very few cases of polio in the western hemisphere since the 1970s, and although current worldwide eradication programs continue to be successful, there is still work to be done to eliminate polio in developing countries.