Poliomyelitis Essay

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Today there are many infectious diseases around the world. An infectious disease is defined as an infection which can be caused by the entrance, development and manipulation of microorganisms in the body. Infections are classified as emerging and re-emerging. An emerging disease is a disease that has appeared in a population for the first time, or that it may have happened previously but is rapidly increasing in incident or geographic range. Whereas a re-emerging disease is a disease that has been present at a location in the past and was considered eradicated or controlled. Some emerging and re-emerging disease present today and in the past are, HIV and Aids, Ebola, Hendra Virus as emerging diseases and Malaria, Tuberculosis, and Cholera as re-emerging diseases. In this report the re-emerging disease ‘Poliomyelitis’ will be thoroughly investigated and from reliable research, the effectiveness of the management to prevent this disease in the world will be evaluated. Poliomyelitis, often called ‘polio’ or ‘infantile paralysis’ is an infectious disease caused by a virus. This dangerous infectious disease has been eradicated around the world except for three countries, Nigeria, Pakistan and Afghanistan.
Poliomyelitis is a dangerous viral disease which can lead to either partial or full paralysis of the human body. This infectious disease was a worldwide epidemic with more than twenty thousand cases reported throughout the world. It was only until 1955 when the Salk inactivated polio vaccine (IPV) was introduced which very successfully started supressing the disease. This disease is affiliated with the enterovirus subgroup of ‘Picornaviridae’ family. It is classified as three serotypes: PV1, PV2 and PV3. The infection is sprea...

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... presented by the diagram on the side. In this diagram some countries in Asia, Africa and South America have coverage of less than 89% of infants immunised. Two African countries, Somalia and Central African Republic have a rate of below 50%. The disease could also be prevented from re-emerging in countries where it has been eradicated by thoroughly promoting personal and environmental hygiene. The disease can also be eradicated in the other 3 countries by educating parents in rural areas about vaccinations and good hygiene as the disease is mainly spread through faeces
The world can also start helping by having camps in the rural areas and injecting new born babies with vaccinations for no cost. By implementing the above measures, it would cost some money and will take some time, although it would result in a world, free of the infectious disease, poliomyelitis.

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