Lily Jebejian

10/26/19

AP Biology

Current Event #6

Mcneil, Donald G. “Two Strains of Polio Are Gone, but the End of the Disease Is Still Far Off.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 23 Oct. 2019, www.nytimes.com/2019/10/23/health/polio-strain-eradication.html.

Polio is a disease that has been devastating for hundreds of years. It is particularly harmful to children because it causes permanent paralysis if the child isn’t vaccinated. There are a total of three types of polio: type one, type two, and type three. Type two was declared eliminated in 2015, and just this week type three was declared eliminated as well, leaving only type one as the active virus. The fight against polio has taken longer than expected because of a number of reasons, 

“First, millions of families around the world have not let their children have the drops because of persistent false rumors that the vaccine is a Western plot to sterilize Muslim girls or do other harm. Second, in some countries viruses used in the oral vaccine itself have mutated into a form that can be passed on in diapers and sewage, and can paralyze unvaccinated children. That has contributed to fear of the oral vaccine, even though full vaccination is the only protection against such mutant viruses”(McNeil).

These factors have made the eradication of polio a much slower process than expected. In order to receive full protection children must take an oral and injection vaccination. But recently there have been reports that the weakened virus is mutating and causing harm to unvaccinated children. This outbreak of circulating vaccine-derived polio virus (or cVDPV) has been occuring in 20 countries over the past two years. More children have been paralyzed by cVDPV in the past two years than by type one polio. This poses more problems by creating more harm than it is stopping. In order to fix this doctors and scientists are working to create a less dangerous vaccine and make sure every child receives it. 

Although these outbreaks of type one polio are only occurring in Pakistan and Afghanistan, it is crucial to stop the virus because it can spread very easily. Once the virus begins to spread it will be harder to contain, so therefore we have to eradicate it completely while also being cautious of the effects the vaccine may have. In addition to stopping type one polio, we must also be prepared in case type two or three come back, this means having vaccines ready and plans in place so that there isn’t another outbreak.

Overall I thought this article was very informative and interesting to read. But, there were some places I thought could be improved. I felt that at some points more information was necessary in order for the reader to fully understand the concept. One particular point is the origin of cVDPV, which I thought was not fully explained. I also think the addition of more symptoms of polio would have benefitted the article. But overall I thought the article was well done and really got me thinking about this issue.