A new study shows how polio can be wiped out and its reemergence can be prevented, but the job won't be over even when the last case of polio is recorded.
Continued surveillance of polio virus is crucial even after eradication of the disease as the polio virus can continue to transmit silently for over three with no reported cases, says a new study.
According to the researchers, in order to assure that the disease is completely eliminated, aggressive surveillance programs as well as vaccination campaigns must continue in endemic countries for years after the last reported case, Times of India noted.
Micaela Martinez-Bakker from the University of Michigan in the US said, "Once we have eradicated polio -- or think that we have eradicated polio -- we probably should intensify the environmental surveillance to make sure the virus is not just lurking under the hood at very low levels."
"Using transmission models, we demonstrate that you can have sustained chains of silent transmission in populations for more than three years, without a single person ever showing up as a reported polio case."
"Polio eradication is about eradicating the virus. It is not about eradicating the disease paralytic polio," she added.
Micaela Martinez-Bakker noted that polio eradication is not just about eradicating the disease paralytic polio, but eradicating the virus.
Pakistan, along with Afghanistan and Nigeria are the only countries where polio still remains endemic, down from over 125 countries in 1988. According to the World Health Organization, the disease usually affects children under give, with one in 200 infections leading to irreversible paralysis. The World Health Organization reported 416 cases of polio worldwide in 2013, according to reports on The New Indian Express.
Martinez analyzed polio case reports from large-scale US epidemics in the pre-vaccine era, along with census numbers from every state and birth statistics. The huge data gave a sneak peek into the ecology of polio infection in the relative absence of human intervention.
The study is published in the Open Access journey PLOS Biology.
