To many of us, polio seems like this strange disease that people contracted long ago but isn’t really a problem anymore.
That’s because polio has been eradicated in Singapore since 2000. You see, Singapore was among the first countries to introduce live oral poliovirus vaccines (OPV) on a mass scale in 1958.
And with the mandatory national childhood immunisation programme, the disease quickly died out.
But, as you know, there is a growing group of people who are opposing these vaccines based on unscientific and unsubstantiated beliefs that they are harmful.
This, obviously, can have terrible consequences.
First Polio Case Confirmed In Malaysia Since 1992 After 3-Month-Old Infant Contracts Disease
A three-month-old Malaysian infant has been diagnosed with polio, in what is the first case of polio in the country for nearly three decades.
The baby boy from Tuaran in Malaysia’s Sabah state on Borneo island was brought to the hospital because he had a fever and muscle weakness. He later tested positive for polio.
The infant is stable but still requires assistance to breathe. He’s being treated in isolation.
What exactly is polio?
Polio is a crippling and potentially deadly infectious disease that spreads from person to person and can invade an infected person’s brain and spinal cord, causing paralysis.
Just like Singapore, Malaysia was declared polio-free in 2000, after reporting its last known case of the disease in 1992.
This case comes just months after Phillipines reported its first case of polio since 1993.
Director General of Health Noor Hisham Abdullah said that tests showed the child was infected with a polio strain that shared genetic links with the virus detected in the Philippine cases.
So, what is causing the resurgence of this deadly disease? A lack of immunisation.
Many children not vaccinated in same area
Checks in the area where the baby lived showed 23 of 199 children between 2 and 15 had not received the polio vaccine, Noor Hisham said.
As Noor Hisham, says, this is a “worrying situation” because there is no cure for polio; it can only be stopped with immunisation.
He added that immunisation rates need to be above 95 per cent to prevent infection.
Limited healthcare and anti-vaxxers
According to CNA, the virus spreads rapidly among children, especially in unsanitary conditions in underdeveloped or war-torn regions where healthcare access is limited.
Two examples are Afghanistan and Pakistan, where polio is still widespread.
Noor Hisham has also advised parents to ensure their children were fully vaccinated because some parents in Malaysia are against vaccinations for their kids.
It’s unclear why, but if it’s anything like the anti-vaxxer movement in America, it’s based on a fear that vaccines will harm their children or even cause Autism, claims that have all been debunked.
Parents still persevere with their pseudo-scientific beliefs, however. In 2016, five children in Malaysia died from diphteria, a vaccine-preventable disease, against the advice of health officials.
I just hope this anti-vaxxer belief doesn’t make its way to Singapore, because a lot more than just stupidity will spread as a result.
