The global fight against polio — how far have we come?
Polio is an infectious disease that affects children in particularly terrible ways. Once the poliovirus invades the nervous system, it can cause irreversible paralysis in a matter of hours. As a consequence, many affected children suffered from permanent disability of the muscles in their legs. In the worst cases, it affects the muscles a child uses to breathe, which means that the child suffocates and dies.
To prevent them from dying of suffocation, polio victims were once placed into large mechanical breathing apparatuses called iron lungs. The iron lung was both a lifeline and a life sentence for those permanently paralyzed by the virus, as they would have to remain inside the metal box for years.
Children are still suffering from polio today, but the disease is much rarer than it once was. In this short article, I want to show how far the world has come in our battle against polio, and I want to show that we today have the opportunity to end polio once and for all. This — the global eradication of polio — would surely rank among humanity’s greatest achievements.
In the first half of the 20th century, many cities around the world suffered through horrible epidemics of polio. The disease can spread through contaminated food and water, especially in places with poor sanitation and hygiene. To turn the tide, scientists worked tirelessly on a vaccine.
