Recently on the news there has been many
reports on the recent outbreak of Polio within Syria, which thought to have
originated in Pakistan. So far there has
been twenty-two children recorded paralysed, ten of these have be confirmed to
infected with the polio virus and the further twelve victims are being
investigated. The origin of Pakistan indicated a high risk for the virus to
have spread over a broad area, not just the Deir al-Zol region where those
infected live. Although vaccinations have decreased the rates of polio, the
spread of polio has never stopped in Afghanistan, Nigeria and Pakistan.
Polio is a highly infectious disease, where
transmission is via the mouth by infected food or water. It is usually in areas with poor sanitation
due to infection of the food or water by feces of a polio victim. Furthermore
the virus can be transmitted by direct contact with the infected person. Certain
categories of people are most vulnerable to infection, such as pregnant women,
very young children (often younger than five) and those with a weak immune
system. The virus causes many symptoms,the worst being paralysis invading the
nervous system and infecting the brain and spinal cord, and can be fatal due to
immobilizing breathing muscles. Other symptoms include flu-like symptoms that last for a few days or
weeks, such as fever,
sore throat,
headache,
vomiting, fatigue,
back and neck pain, arm and leg stiffness, muscle tenderness, muscle spasms,
and meningitis.
These symptoms tend to be those of nonparalytic polio or the beginning symptoms
of the paralytic polio. Paralytic polio however advances onto harsher symptoms
such as severe muscle pain, loose or floppy limbs or in the worst case as
previously described paralysis of different parts of the body.
The Polio outbreak within Syria refers to
symptomatic polio, which accounts for 4-8% of all cases. Polio can be defined
as either symptomatic or asymptomatic. Symptomatic polio can be broken down
further into a mild form called nonparalytic (where many patients can make a
full recovery) or abortive polio and a severe form called paralytic polio
(occurring in 0.1% to 2% of cases). Paralytic polio (as mentioned above) also
may be classified as:
Spinal polio
- attacks motor neurons in the spinal cord and causes paralysis in arms and
legs and breathing problems
Bulbar polio
- affects neurons responsible for sight, vision, taste, swallowing, and
breathing
Bulbospinal polio - both spinal and bulbar polio
There is no cure for Polio, so in more
economically developed countries polio is cut out my vaccinations given at
birth. Therefore the best form of treatment is prevention in the form of immunisation,
however medication can be given to ease the symptoms of those infected. These
treatments can include antibiotics to treat consequent infections, pain
killers, and ventilators for those with lung paralysis.
References:
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