On the occasion of World Polio Day, which is celebrated on October 24, the professor and Full Professor of the School of Medicine of the University of Navarra, Luis Sierrasesúmaga, assures that "it seems correct to think that, if research continues to make progress in finding a cure, in the not too distant future we will be able to proclaim the eradication of poliomyelitis worldwide".

In Spain, this disease, which can irreversibly damage motor neurons leading to neuromuscular paralysis, has been polio-free since 1988, while in Europe it has been so since 2002: "There is only wild polio, i.e. non-vaccinated, in three countries: Afghanistan, Pakistan and Nigeria. The numbers are gradually decreasing, and last year a total of 74 cases of paralytic polio were reported worldwide," says the expert.  

Nowadays, where information on the negative effects of vaccines has been received with some frequency, the pediatrician is in favor of vaccinating all children who could be victims of poliovirus: "The information on this subject comes from scientifically unproven sources". In this line, the specialist of the Clínica Universidad de NavarraDr. Sierrasesúmaga added that "it is only fair to pay tribute to those who with their daily work and with great physical and economic effort staff are achieving the unattainable: to eradicate a terrible disease worldwide". 

Search for a vaccine

Michael Underwood was the first to describe childhood polio in 1789. In 1988, after finding that despite the existence of effective vaccines, a prevalence of 1,000 new cases of paralytic polio in children per day persisted worldwide, the GPEI (Global Polio Eradication Initiative) was created under the auspices of the WHO, with the idea of eradicating polio worldwide by means of global vaccination. Subsequently, and until the start of population vaccination campaigns in 1995, successive outbreaks of polio were described every summer and autumn throughout the world.

Effective vaccines began to be introduced in the 1950s and 1960s, and the incidence of polio decreased rapidly. However, recognition of the problem in developing countries development was later, and it was not until the 1970s that vaccination schedules were implemented, with a significant decrease in the number of cases of post-polio paralysis being observed from that time onwards.