Today is World Polio Day! 24th October 2018
Lets start with an eye-opener for you all who are still new to the medical sector. Those crippled men and women, children and youth begging on the streets never had an accident. It's polio that maimed them when they were still infants.
Perhaps you look at their thin legs and wonder why they could fold it so easily . Perhaps you look at some of them with pity or they may even disgust you. Perhaps you throw them a few pieces of change or choose not to even care.
Whatever way you have treated these people, the fact still remains that it was polio that took their legs before they ever made use of them. Polio took away their opportunities.
I mean, the society is already hard enough for people with 2 legs, functioning hands, eyes, ears and all body organs. The African continent is tough for everyone. Now imagine the plight of an illiterate, born poor and still crippled.
POLIO IS PREVENTABLE!
Yes Polio virus infection is preventable.
This is one place where prevention is literally better than cure. Once the virus has destroyed the nerve cells going to the legs, it's irreversible (at least not with the current medical technology available).
Vaccination of children is the best way to catch this early. The vaccines are innoculated (maimed) polio viruses which are no longer strong enough to cause infections but still have the antigens.
HOW THE VACCINE WORKS!
The antigens helps to stimulate the immune system to produce large quantities of antibodies and white blood cells whose job is to specifically find and combat polio viruses.
You never know when a child can come in contact with a carrier of the virus. It's only such immunity build up that will help the child fight off the invading organism.
They catch it through the air literally. It's air-borne. So if a carrier sneezes or coughs then the viruses are released into the air. Anyone that breathes this in is at a big risk.
TYPES OF POLIO VACCINE
There are 2 popular types;
- Salk polio vaccine: it's an injection and no child likes an injection☺. Even mother's May cry when their baby is being injected.😃
- Sabin polio vaccine: it's also known as Oral Polio Vaccine (OPV). It's sweet so the babies and mothers love it. He he! It's the popular one in Africa.
POLIO VACCINATION CAMPAIGNS!
There are alot of campaigns usually organized by the big names like WHO, UNICEF, WORLD BANK, UN etcz. The one that occurs to me is Kick Polio Out Of Africa.
I think the campaign was massively adopted back then because it was free, used OPV and mass education was being carried out in schools, churches, town halls, markets etcz.
Has polio gone?
Not totally. The scars of the past are still visible. We still have so many cripples on the streets of African countries. Nigeria for example has alot of them in Lagos.
Some "business men" even exploit these people to make money by using them as baits for begging. Some parts of the continent posenunique challenges. Some believe that the polio vaccine is meant to kill them. Some others believe that it's not cultural or religiously backed.
Shall we continue to watch why preventable diseases like polio claim the future of our children?
This is exactly why we are writing this today. 24th of October is the World Polio Day! It's time we take back the lives of our children and give them a bright future.
FIGHT POLIO WITH ALL YOU HAVE!
Live Healthy, Get Wealthy! 🏥♨💙
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