Preview

Effects of Polio on Society

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
533 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Effects of Polio on Society
Effects of Polio on Society

Polio had existed in society for a long time in history, although not as big a problem in history as in the 20th century, when greater emphasis was put on sanitation and children stopped getting the disease as babies. The effects of this disease on society were great. People feared that tomorrow they or their family members or friends would catch polio.

Although polio has been significantly reduced in numbers, it still continues to exist in Africa and some parts of Asia. People are still infected with polio, and there are still global initiatives for the eradication of polio. These initiatives are not very effective as recently, in Africa there has been a controversy in Kano, Nigeria, chaired by the Emir of Kano, Alhaji Ado Bayero and Governor Ibrahim Shekarau, who have put a lid on the federal government's hope to get the people of Kano to use polio vaccines from the federal government. The reason they are against the polio vaccine is that there were many contaminated vaccine being supplied there, and they do not want to risk the lives of several Kano children. Official Ezio Gianni Murzi said that while polio had nearly been eradicated globally, Nigeria had recorded an increase of 40% in cases so far in 2003 compared to 2002. Whatever the reason for this may be, at least three northern states have opposed the preventive measures against polio after Islamic leaders blamed the vaccines on being a secret US plan to depopulate Africa. Situations such as these are defering the goal of global polio eradication.

The eradication is still close to being achieved, as WHO estimates that new worldwide polio cases fell to just 3,200 in 1998. Reported cases of the disease have dropped by 90% in the last decade after the WHO launched a worldwide vaccination campaign. The number of people suffering from polio around the world is now estimated to be around 35,000. But as many as 20 million people in the world are still suffering from the effects

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Powerful Essays

    This chapter starts off with the difficulty of diligence. Yet there are some who have managed to deliver that expectation on an incredible scale. The task of distributing polio vaccines to millions of people, many in rural areas, was evidently a long and complicated task. The WHO had a team of only hundreds and had to teach the necessary vaccination procedures to the volunteers and local representatives,…

    • 2795 Words
    • 12 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    The novel The Polio Years in Texas: Battling a Terrifying Unknown by Heather Green Wooten focuses on the rising epidemic of paralytic poliomyelitis, also known as polio. In response to the polio outbreak, Texas researchers thankfully made life-changing discoveries in virology, rehabilitative therapies, and in the modern intensive care unit. Wooten used substantial research and interviews that she conducted over a five-year time lapse with several Texan survivors of polio, as well as their families. From the information collected, a detailed and heartbreaking account was created in this novel of both the epidemic that nearly destroyed Texas and the aftermath of the disease for those who still live with its harsh effects.…

    • 580 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Polio is still a bit vague today, as of its being so uncommon. However, as it is still a disease, shall we dive into this matter? Often, like West Nile virus, Polio won’t effect the patient, however, in rare cases, you will receive symptoms. Once, there was an epidemic for this disease, however, it is now rare. Polio is only treatable, and cannot be cured. Rarely, Polio may even cause paralysis. Now, around 1960, they were using light treatment for those affected by Polio, and the treatment worked!…

    • 999 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Polio has been dealt with in many of the countries around the world. It originally was expected to be demolished in 2000, but that date has soon been forgotten. The hardest place to get the polio virus has been in Nigeria, tension has arisen and now the people of the African country are informing people to avoid getting the polio vaccine because they believe it could cause Polio as much as it could help. The vaccine has been given to be all around the world and from one country, that is thought to have started it, has avoided it, it is starting to spread to other countries “that were once polio-free” as said by the Centre for International…

    • 1524 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Vaccination Case Study

    • 608 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Government’s involvement can achieve an efficient quantity of vaccinations because it is possible for governments within the region especially in the developing countries to pull all their resources together and procure their vaccines in bulk. This will in turn be cheaper for the individual states and ensure a constant annual supply of vaccines which can be offered free to the citizens especially those at risk or sold at a price much cheaper than the private sector. This will ensure that the 95% goal of vaccination is achieved. Government can also enact laws making it mandatory for at risk clients to get vaccinated.…

    • 608 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The first pressing reason to vaccinate children is to prevent them from contracting diseases. It can hardly be argued that immunizations fail to protect the majority of children from getting the infection the immunization was designed to prevent. In the 18th century, for example, hundreds of thousands of Americans were infected by a crippling condition called polio. Polio was a terrible infection that caused sufferers to lose the use of their legs. Many had to walk with braces or crutches. Some lost the ability to walk and had to be placed in wheelchairs, while others were so disabled they became unable to engage in any physical activity, or even died of the condition. Polio was so prevalent it even affected American president Franklin Delano Roosevelt (Schnell 2)! Thanks to vaccinations, today polio is all but unheard of in the USA, and in other countries that immunize against it. This example alone should show the desirability of immunization. Who…

    • 546 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    For example, according to Medicinenet.com, before there was a vaccine for diphtheria, it used to kill over 10,000 children every year; it is so rare now that doctors almost never see a case of it. “Parents in the 1950s were terrified as polio paralyzed children by the thousands…now the fight against polio is nearly won” (Medicinenet.com).…

    • 788 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Have you ever wondered about the purpose of vaccine? Do you wonder why you always get vaccines? Do you also think of the importance of a vaccine and what good it can do for you? Well, you’re in the right place! This project will examine Polio, the pathology, how it affected the United States and how it was eventually conquered in the United States.…

    • 601 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Some scientists believe that the help that vaccines offer to society are too great to stop using them. In a History of Vaccines, the author states that vaccines have helped eradicate the smallpox virus (Hammond, 2013). The smallpox virus was a disease that was previously disfiguring, contagious, and most importantly deadly, (Fenner, 2006). The smallpox virus affected over 300-500 million people, (Fenner, 2006). Because to the use of vaccines today, the smallpox virus can no longer affect us due to it being almost nonexistent, (Fenner, 2006). The Children's Vaccine Initiative states that due to the use of vaccines, the Polio virus has…

    • 670 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Polio is a great example of what vaccines can do. In 1955, the year the polio vaccine was introduced; there were a recorded 28,985 cases in the United States. Between 1955 and 1965, the amount of people with polio went from 28,985 to 0 reported cases in the U.S. In that time, the death count also went from 1,043 deaths to 0. Any cases of polio reported after 1965 were often brought from other parts of the world and were not…

    • 944 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Despite overwhelming evidence supporting the safety and benefits of vaccines, fear of vaccinations has proven resistant to information leading to a rise in refusals among parents in developed countries (Dipietro). In modern society with the rapid pace of vaccine development along with new technology, the history and importance of vaccines seem forgotten, leading people to underestimate the severity of infectious diseases. “Those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it,” George Santayana. The growing resistance to vaccinations is a well-known occurrence, due to the positive effects vaccinations have had worldwide. Studying history is necessary to continue to evolve and avoid repeating the mistakes of our past. “History never repeats itself, but man always does,” Voltaire. Modern society (Millennials) do not understand the threat of infectious disease because they lack the life experience to know the devastation they can bring. Several parents have increasingly questioned the safety of vaccines, as a result vaccination rates have fallen to dramatically…

    • 675 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Mandatory Vaccinations

    • 787 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Parents and guardians, who believe that vaccines should not be mandatory, contend that vaccines cause health problems or they are no longer necessary. Children get their main vaccines between the ages of two months to twelve months old. Children at this age are already at a high risk for developing high fevers, seizures, and sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS). Therefore, there is no way of truly determining if any adverse effect on the child was coincidental or actually caused by the inoculation itself. Since 1990, thirty thousand cases have been reported to the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) where the patient had an adverse reaction to the vaccine. Out of the thirty thousand cases three thousand nine hundred were reported as life threatening. That is a small percentage when compared to the 10.5 million illnesses that the same vaccines have prevented. (Zhou, 2003) Because polio is not carried in the USA, there are those who feel that not only should the vaccine not be mandatory, it is completely unnecessary. Opponents to mandatory vaccinations have forgotten one important truth. Thousands of innocent children have lost their lives due to diseases such as smallpox and polio, which could have easily been prevented through the use of vaccines. In reality, it is…

    • 787 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    It is believed that the source of the outbreak was likely brought over by travelers from overseas. This would not be a problem if all of the children were vaccinated; but, because they were not, a small epidemic of measles was the result. Measles had been declared eliminated in the country in the year 2000 which leads a poll of ninety-two percent of physicians to believe that this outbreak is directly attributed to parent not vaccinating their kids. this affects not only the unvaccinated children of Anti-Vaxxers but those that are unable to be vaccinated. Young babies and the elderly with immune disorders are also at risk. Anti-Vaxxers need to realize they are risking the lives of more than just their children in making their decision to not have them vaccinated.…

    • 407 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Although primitive forms of vaccination date back to the ancient Chinese, the creation of the small pox vaccine by Jenner in 1796 put vaccination into the mainstream of our healthcare system. In 1954, Saulk created the polio vaccine and in 1955 it was approved by the FDA for disbursement in the U.S. eventually eradicating the disease in this country.…

    • 730 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    In the U.S. we have a reduced or eliminated many diseases that were once huge killers of infants and small children. One of the viruses we have eliminated is polio. At the height of the polio epidemic in 1952, nearly 60,000 cases with more than 3,000 deaths were reported in the United States alone. Polio was eliminated from the U.S. by 1979 and from the western hemisphere by 1991. This is due to the polio vaccine created by Jonas Salk in 1955. What would happen if parents choose not to immunize their children? According to the CDC “stopping vaccination against polio will leave people susceptible to infection.” Polio while not always life threatening is a virus which usually leads to permanent physical disabilities, which often leaves its victims, who are mostly children, in braces, crutches, and wheelchairs, these effects were life-long. Parents choosing not to immunize their children raise the risk of children becoming infected with not just polio but other diseases which…

    • 1801 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Powerful Essays

Related Topics