Plans and Reality
In fact, the World Health Organization (WHO) planned to banish poliomyelitis from our planet by the year 2000. And it would easily have done this if it had not been for the countries of the third world, where a harmful virus is actively circulating, transmitted by airborne droplets, like influenza, and most importantly through unwashed fruit-vegetables and dirty hands. In the Central Asian republics with the collapse of the Soviet Union, the children were no longer vaccinated, and the defeated infection again turned into a serious international problem. This spring, in Tajikistan alone, physicians registered 278 cases of poliomyelitis, with 15 of them (mostly in children under 5 years old) with a fatal outcome. In this Central Asian country, the infection came from neighboring India, Pakistan and Afghanistan. It is very common in Africa. There have been many years of special UN programs for vaccinating children. As border infection does not comply, poliomyelitis wanders. In addition, nuts and dried fruits imported from disadvantaged regions may be infected. On products and in water, it persists for 2-4 months, moreover, it tolerates drying and freezing well, but is only afraid of boiling, potassium permanganate (potassium permanganate solution) and hydrogen peroxide. Water for children's drinking should be used only boiled or bottled. Vegetables, fruits, berries and greens thoroughly wash with running water and sprinkle with boiling water before giving the baby. Never drink it with milk, bought from the hands: it can be infected with a virus of poliomyelitis (as well as pathogens of many other intestinal infections). True, if milk is boiled, there will be no more risk.
A drop of health
The most effective means of preventing poliomyelitis is immunization. She is given a crumb at 3 months at the same time as vaccination against pertussis, diphtheria and tetanus. First, do an intramuscular injection of DTP (in the ass), and then drip the child into the mouth from the pipette vaccine against poliomyelitis. It would seem that it's much easier: swallowed - and ready! But with this (child-friendly) way of administering the vaccine, one must follow the rules. You can not, for example, feed crumbs immediately before or immediately after immunization, because he can regurgitate the milk along with the vaccine. Then it will need to be given again! On the story of how the pope brought a baby son to a vaccine against polio and did not pay attention to the fact that he had regurgitated the vaccine, and therefore remained unprotected from a dangerous virus, the plot of the last novel of the modern writer Alexandra Marinina was built. The boy, naturally, soon fell ill and as a result was confined to a wheelchair, and the pope had to pay brutally for his oversight.
The story is very vital, except for one thing: in the years described by the author (the end of the last century), poliomyelitis, especially in Moscow, was a rarity. But in the middle of the 20th century, the increase in the incidence of this infection in many countries of Europe and North America gave it the nature of a national disaster: in some cities the incidence was 13-20 people per year per 10 000 population - that's a lot! An example of the American President Theodore Roosevelt, who ruled the country in a wheelchair, is illustrative. He suffered poliomyelitis at 39, after which he could no longer walk. True, this form of the disease is more typical for young children, and among adults, only those who suffer from immunodeficiency are so hard to tolerate the infection. However, after the creation of vaccines against poliomyelitis and mass immunization of children in developed countries, including the territory of modern Ukraine, this infection was virtually eliminated. Even now, when the epidemiological situation can be complicated because of imported virus, outbreaks of infection do not occur, because our kids are protected from it by vaccination. Council. Be sure to keep a calendar of vaccinations for the baby, marking their dates in it. Please note: the vaccine against poliomyelitis in the first year is administered three times at intervals of 45 days. Try not to exceed this deadline! The protective effect of a single immunization is 50%, and when the child received 3 doses - 95%. If he gets into the remaining 5%, he will transfer the infection in an erased form and certainly will not become an invalid. The main thing is to make sure that your baby's revaccination is strictly following the schedule: at 18 and 20 months, and then at 14 years.
Alive or dead?
The vaccine against poliomyelitis is of two types: containing live attenuated virus (OPV) and dead inactivated (IPV). Which of the two is better? Actually, the first one - it gives more stable immunity. However, it is extremely rare (one case for 2-3 million), but even such a weakened virus can cause a vaccine-associated disease. To prevent this from happening, the child must be examined by the attending physician before vaccination. The doctor will determine if there are any contraindications to vaccination. The latter include immunodeficiency and acute conditions accompanied by fever or systemic disorders, as well as malignant diseases (including oncohematology) and neurological disorders that accompanied the previous introduction of the polio vaccine. But in the US, OPV has not been used for more than 10 years. Since 1979, 144 cases of vaccine-associated poliomyelitis have been reported in the country (mainly in patients with AIDS over the age of 18), so doctors decided not to take any more risks, and switched to immunizing the population of IPV. Although it is weaker, it is not capable of provoking poliomyelitis. In American conditions, this step is justified: a baby born in the United States is unlikely to encounter a "wild" type 1 polio virus, and our children, as the events of recent months show, must be protected from it - however, a weak inactivated vaccine For example, babies treated with antibiotics (streptomycin and neomycin) may give anaphylactic reaction of varying degrees of severity in response to IPV - from local edema to shock. there is no such thing as a safe vaccine - like drugs in general - but it is important to understand one thing: in case of refusal from vaccination, the child risks much more .10 to 20% of those with poliomyelitis suffer from paralysis and the death rate in this disease reaches 4% .These figures - a strong argument for vaccination! One more important fact needs to be taken into account: scientists know three types (professionals usually use the term "strain") of the poliomyelitis virus. The foregoing means that this infection can be picked up and ill once, but three times during life: in the process of recovering from infection, immunity is formed only to one viral strain, and the vaccine protects everyone from it.
Correct diagnosis
The incubation period of poliomyelitis (the time period from infection with the virus to the appearance of the first clinical symptoms) lasts from 3 to 14 days. And the highest incidence is observed in late summer or early autumn. The infection begins sharply and at first resembles the flu. The classic picture of the flu looks like this: the baby raises the temperature to 38-39 ° C, it becomes sluggish, loses appetite, starts sneezing and coughing, crying and being naughty, because his neck hurts. And if to these signs pain in a tummy and diarrhea joins (that, by the way, meets far not always), the mummy starts to think, that at a crust a usual intestinal infection. In a way, it is true. Physicians do not just refer poliomyelitis to diseases of dirty hands. Observance of hygiene skills significantly reduces its threat. It takes 4-5 days, and the child becomes noticeably better. In the person of the ignorant one gets the impression that the baby has recovered, but in fact such a picture can be called a calm before the storm. The light interval lasts a week, and then the temperature rises again, with the paralysis of different muscles developing, most often the legs and hands, but the facial musculature, as well as the intercostal muscles and the diaphragm may suffer - in such cases the baby becomes difficult to breathe. It is very alarming if the virus affects the respiratory and vasomotor centers: in such a situation, the life of a crumb hangs literally in the balance. In some cases, poliomyelitis occurs without paralysis - under the guise of meningitis, and its relatively light forms are masked for colds or intestinal infections: such erased manifestations of the disease are almost impossible to recognize. They are especially dangerous for others, because they contribute to the free spread of viruses. To treat a child who has fallen ill with poliomyelitis is necessary in the hospital - he needs a bed rest, absolute rest and round-the-clock supervision of specialists. Mom should hope for the best: in half of the cases, as the child recovers, paralysis also occurs.
In the complex of restorative measures, specialists pay great attention to massage and physiotherapy, as well as sanatorium and resort treatment using sand and mud baths in the cities of Berdyansk and Yevpatoria, as well as radon and hydrogen sulfide (for example, in Sochi). To treat the baby will have a lifetime, but despair, you can not let go of your hands in any case. Any improvement should be seen as a victory over the disease, even a very small one. It is possible that over time - and this business is not such a distant future! - doctors will learn how to repair the "breakage" caused by the polio virus in neurons, which will save patients from the consequences of this disease.Therefore, one should always hope for the best and try to strengthen this belief in the child. must, first of all, from Mommy!