Europe is Polio Free
June 21, 2002
Children on crutches, with leg braces or even in iron lungs were not uncommon in Europe 50 years ago. In the 1940s and 50s polio epidemics swept over the continent almost every summer, causing panic and crippling thousands of children.
But on Friday, the World Health Organization (WHO) certified Europe as free of the polio virus, making it the third region in the world -- after the Americas and 37 Western Pacific countries -- to have eradicated the disease through intense immunization efforts. WHO’s European Region includes 51 countries, in a geographic area stretching from Portugal to Uzbekistan.
The last reported case of European polio was in Turkey in 1998, when a two-year-old child (photo) who had not been immunized contracted an indigenous version of the virus. Germany saw its last indigenous polio case in 1990, although several cases since then have been reported arising from viruses originating outside Germany’s borders.
Fast-acting virus
Polio, or poliomyelitis, is a highly infectious disease caused by a virus that mainly affects children under five years of age. It enters through the mouth and attacks the nervous system. Total paralysis can occur within a number of hours.
One in 200 infections leads to irreversible paralysis, usually in the legs. About 5 to 10 percent of those paralysed die after their breathing muscles become immobilized. Polio paralysis is almost always permanent.
Conquering the virus
American researcher Jonas Salk developed a vaccine for polio in the early 1950s, and vaccinations began on a large scale in 1955. The results were astonishing. In the US, the number of polio cases fell from 28,985 in 1955 to 5,894 in 1959. In that year, 90 other countries used Salk’s vaccine.
Since then, progress toward a polio-free world has been rapid, largely thanks to continuing drives to get vaccines to children in developing countries. The number of of polio endemic countries fell from 125 in 1988 to just 10 in 2001, while the number of polio cases plummeted in the same period from 350,000 to approximately 500.
It is estimated that there are eight countries left in the world where the polio virus is still circulating in the population. Those countries include Pakistan, India, Afghanistan, Nigeria and Somalia.
Keeping Europe polio free
Although Europe has managed to free itself from polio, the continent can’t let its guard down, particularly when it comes to vaccinations, according to UNICEF, the UN’s agency for children. It calls for the vaccination of immigrants to be given top priority, since many have not been vaccinated and come from countries which still report new polio infections.
"We can’t stop vaccinating people here because there are countries from which the polio virus can be brought back into Europe," UNICEF’s Helga Kuhn told reporters. "Only when polio disappears from the face of the planet can we stop the vaccinations."