The World Health Organization (WHO) has set a goal of eradicating polio. This goal is achievable because poliomyelitis virus transmission is exclusively person-to-person and effective vaccines are available. Extensive vaccination campaigns in developing countries where the disease still occurs and maintenance of adequate vaccination coverage rates in developed countries should help achieve this goal.
Europe still not completely polio-free
After the last WHO-recorded case in Europe occurred in 1998 in a 33-month-old child in Turkey, Europe was declared a polio-free zone in June 2002. However, when two new cases were reported in southwestern Ukraine in September 2015, it was seen as a huge setback.
Vaccination therefore remains very important, as polio still occurs or reoccurs outside Europe. The disease can also be introduced by infected tourists or emigrants.
Transmission of polio
Polio is an acute, transmissible infectious disease. About a week after the onset of infection, the virus is excreted in the nasopharyngeal secretions, followed – for another three to six weeks – by excretion of the virus in the stool. During this period, the disease can be transmitted to another person.
The vaccines against polio
To prevent polio from making a comeback in Germany, every adult should have adequate vaccination protection. Two vaccines exist against the causative agent of polio: the oral vaccination and the injection vaccination.
- SABIN live poliovirus vaccine (OPV), called the oral vaccine. Swallow vaccination is absorbed through the mouth and is therefore called oral vaccination. In oral vaccination, an attenuated but multipliable live vaccine is administered. This triggers an intestinal infection with the attenuated viruses. In this way, vaccinated individuals can infect others with the vaccine viruses. In addition, increased side effects can occur with a live vaccine.
- The inactive poliovirus vaccine according to SALK (IPV), which is injected under the skin or into the muscle. Vaccination by injection is a dead vaccine. The vaccine is very safe and there are virtually no side effects – the administered viruses are just not capable of reproduction.
Since January 1998, the “Standing Commission on Vaccination” recommends polio vaccination for the above reasons only by injection with the inactivated vaccine (IPV) according to SALK.
