Dr. David Johnson, who is the incoming president for the Bastrop Rotary Club, spoke to us about the istory of polio and its eradication. He has conducted cancer research for the last 30 years at MD Anderson and as part of that studied viruses that cause cancer. This lead to his interest in polio. He describe the polio virus, which is very small and only infects humans. It is highly infectious but only causes paralysis in a few cases- less than 1%. David described how it spreads through fecal matter. The main problems occur when it reaches the nerves; however, most times, those infected are asymptomatic. Polio has been around for centuries. David told us about the development of vaccines in the 1950s and how the last case of wild polio virus in the US was in 1979. Rotary became involved in polio eradication in the 1980s and has been working towards it since then with a number of international partners.
1988 - 350,000 cases in 125 countries
1998 - 1934
2001 - 212
2005 - 1831
2017 - 8
2021 - 6
Since 2016 only endemic in Afghanistan and Pakistan
The biggest obstacles to finally eradicating polio are armed conflict and vaccine resistance due to misinformation. David also told us about one issue with the live polio vaccine. Because it uses a weakened version of the virus, it can spread through an area as it is shed and help vaccinate the unvaccinated. However, in areas of low vaccination, it can mutate and become an infectious virus and lead to polio outbreaks. To stop this, a population needs to be fully vaccinated. In the past few years, outbreaks of this type of polio have increased – there were 1000 cases in 2020. Scientists have been working to improve the live vaccine so that it won’t mutate as easily and this new vaccine is now in use. Unfortunately , in 2022, the wild virus reappeared in Mozambique and Malawi, with 6 new cases. This is an area of conflict, so there is some concern about this outbreak. Also, polio returned to the UK, US and Israel through a vaccine derived source. The virus was found in the UK sewer system and infected someone in NY and also showed up in Jerusalem. This outbreak showed the importance of making sure everyone is vaccinated as the infected person in New York came from a community was vaccinations were low. Another concern with successfully eradicating polio, is that usually female vaccinators are more effective in Afghanistan and Pakistan and the Taliban has just said that women cannot work for NGOs. Hopefully, they will continue to all women to help vaccinate the children of Afghanistan. Here’s hoping that polio is eradicated in the new few years!!