World Polio Day 2023:
World Polio Day is celebrated every year on October 24 to create awareness around the importance of polio vaccination to protect children.
- Polio is a very infectious illness that has been around since ancient times, is a life threatening and disabling disease that can spread from person to person and can cause paralysis or may cause weakness in arms or legs.
- Polio virus can live in an infected a person’s throat and intestines and can be contracted by food and water in unhygienic conditions.
- It can spread through a snooze or feces of an infected person.
Vaccine:
Oral polio vaccine (OPV):
- It produces antibodies in the blood to protect the individual against polio paralysis by preventing the spread of poliovirus to the nervous system.
Inactivated polio vaccine (IPV):
- It is an injectable three dose vaccine and can be either administered alone or along with other vaccines (e.g., diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis, hepatitis B, and haemophilus influenzae).
