So, is it gone yet?

A post on polio

Whether you’re a microbiologist or a high school student unaffiliated with immunology, you’ve heard of polio and our goal to rid the world of the deadly disease– permanently. To do this, there has been two types of vaccines created for the virus. IPV, or the Salk vaccine, was first instituted and decreased the prevalence of polio dramatically, but it came along with a disadvantage. In order to be effective, you needed multiple injections of the vaccine. With the needed series, to many, IPV just seemed too complicated and expensive.

Then came OPV, or the Sabin vaccine, IPV’s more reasonable sister. Because OPV is administered orally and doesn’t require a series, there is the advantage of it being cheaper. An even better advantage brought along with the vaccine is its ability to produce better herd immunity. In comparison to her high-maintenance sister, OPV’s caring attributes leave her being essential for polio eradication, as increasing herd immunity decreases disease. So how far have we come in completely erasing this virus from the face of our planet?

Pretty far I’d say. In October of 2019 on “World Polio Day”, the WHO declared WPV3, strain 3 of the virus, as globally eradicated. This is the second strain of the virus to be eradicated following WPV2 in 2015. WPV3 and WPV2 exist nowhere in any part of the world aside from secured specimens. While this is great progress, WPV1, the last strain, does still exist circulating in Pakistan and Afghanistan, and the goal was set for eradication by the year 2000. Seeing that we’re 20 over, we have some work to do.