No More Cases Of Polio In India

From Teaching Kids the News:

India made history this month when it announced that there were no more cases of polio in the country. The victory came after years of work by India’s public-health workers. They travelled to the most remote places and the poorest areas in the country. They gave vaccines—medicine that prevents diseases—to 172 million children.

Polio is a viral infection that can paralyze (stop movement in) the body, especially in people’s arms and legs. It can also make people’s breathing difficult as if they have very bad asthma. It can even be fatal.

Polio is very contagious, so when people with polio are living close together, like they do in India, it spreads easily from one person to another.

 In the 1950s thousands of Canadians and Americans got polio. Parents panicked, worried their children would catch the disease. In 1955, an American, Dr. Jonas Salk, created a vaccine to prevent polio. It has now been wiped out in the U.S. and Canada.

African boy with legs withered and crippled by polio

But polio went untreated in many poorer countries that could not afford to vaccinate people.

African boy with leg braces and crutches donated by a charity

Many companies have contributed money and resources to vaccinate children around the world. WHO (the World Health Organization), UNICEF, The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and International Rotary (a business club) helped pay for the vaccines and the people to give them out. It cost millions of dollars, but for countries like India it has paid off.