Poliomyelitis, commonly shortened to polio is an infectious disease caused by the poliovirus. It is also known as the paralyzing disease because about 1 in 200 people are paralyzed due to it. It attacks mainly the gut and nervous system. This can occur over a few hours to a few days.
Today, the world is very close to completely eradicating polio. However, there are still tiny pockets around the globe that have outbreaks of polio due to poor vaccination. In a few cases, the live weakened vaccine caused the disease in people's bodies and started epidemics (zombie virus!).
No other live weakened vaccine has ever done that before. Needless to say, the World Health Organisation (WHO) officials were paralyzed with fear of the prospect of another polio outbreak (see what I did there?).
They issued an immediate replacement of the old vaccine with an orally administrated one. The new vaccine was recently cleared on November 13 (which, incidentally was the second Friday the 13th of 2020. Not that it matters here. Obviously). Immunization with the virus has prevented more than 13 million cases since 2000. After smallpox, polio was chosen as the next virus to be eradicated due to the availability of a cheap, easily administered, and (mostly) effective vaccine. Since the virus can't spread from humans to animals, it can't hang around animals in between outbreaks. I don't know about you, but I for one can't wait for polio to be eradicated. Rest in peace Polio, you will not be missed. (you're next corona.)
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