Polio, in the state, has a coverage of 98.1 percent in children under the age of one year, that is, 95,000 635 doses have been applied (to children under the age of 2, 4 and 6 months); and in more than a year there is talk of reinforcement applied at 18 months, which is 87.5 percent with 32 thousand 368 doses applied, in the latter it drops a little because in the first band three doses are put.
Esmeralda Vanegas Santana, Head of the State Health Services Department of Vaccinology, explained that polio is a viral disease that can affect the spinal cord causing muscle weakness and paralysis. Initial symptoms are fever, fatigue, headache, vomiting, stiff neck, and pain in the limbs. One in 200 infections causes irreversible paralysis (usually of the legs) and 5 to 10% of these cases die from paralysis of the respiratory muscles. Polio mainly affects children under the age of five.
It is a disease that has no cure, but is preventable through vaccination. It should be reiterated that a safe and effective vaccine is currently available, called Hexavalent, which is part of the vaccination calendar and applies to 2, 4, 6 and 18 months, which in addition to providing protection against polio, protects against diphtheria, pertussis, tetanus. , hepatitis B and infections caused by Haemophilus influenzae type B, such as meningitis, pneumonia, otitis media, among others.
The American continent was the first to be declared polio-free in 1994, the last case in the region was recorded in Peru in 1991, in Mexico it was in Tomatlán, Jalisco on October 18, 1990, and in the state on L ‘last case dates back to 1986, all thanks to the hard work done through the Global Polio Eradication Initiative.
Today, only two countries in the world continue to report transmission of the wild poliovirus, Pakistan and Afghanistan. The recent case of vaccine-derived poliovirus type 2 detected in New York (USA) and recently in Brazil in a three-year-old child, the strains found in several environmental samples collected in London, are a clear reminder that while polio exists everywhere, it will continue to pose a threat everywhere.
“As long as there is only one infected child, children in all countries are at risk of contracting polio.”
Citizens were invited to bring their daughter or son to be vaccinated, the biological hexavalent is free and available in all health centers.
