Poliomyelitis, a highly contagious disease that was thought to be eradicated is back with a case identified in the United States.
A case in the United States
The poliomyelitis is making a comeback in many countries around the world, while the vaccine strategy has reduced the incidence of this disease by more than 99%.
As reported Yahoo News on the newspaper story The worldno patients poliomyelitis has not been registered UNITED STATES since 2013. However, a case was detected in the country on July 21. This is a young, unvaccinated patient who develops symptoms of the disease and suffers from partial paralysis.
In a statement, the CDC (Centers for Disease Prevention and Control) reported that an individual who received the vaccin polio oral (OPV), which is no longer authorized or administered on American soil, could be the source of this contagion. A person could therefore have received this vaccine abroad before infecting unvaccinated people.
More details about the disease
According to’World Health Organization (WHO)the poliomyelitis is a highly infectious viral disease that largely affects children under 5 years of age.
The virus is transmitted mainly from person to person by the fecal-oral route, and less frequently by contaminated water or food. It then multiplies in the intestine before invading the nervous system. “Irreversible paralysis (usually of the legs) occurs in about one in every 200 infected people“, explained the Pasteur Institute.
This health establishment pointed out that without palliative measures, between 5 and 10% of patients die of asphyxiation due to paralysis of the muscles providing ventilation.
Effectiveness of the vaccine strategy
In 1988, 350,000 cases of poliomyelitis per year were identified. The introduction of a vaccination strategy made it possible to reduce it by 99% ten years later, to eradicate two of the three serotypes of the disease and to contain the last serotype in Afghanistan and at Pakistan.
However, in the latter country, at least 13 cases have been reported since April. A worrying figure that raises fears of a skyrocketing.
In France, the disease has not reappeared for the moment.
> To read also: Poliomyelitis: increase in cases in 23 African countries