Paralytic poliomyelitis in children under 6 years in Pondicherry: a community survey.

Abstract

Study objectives-To assess the amount of poliomyelitis and its epidemiological features including risk factors. Design-This was a retrospective study of cases ofparalytic poliomyelitis among children 0-6 years of age.Setting-Pondicherry, India, 1983-89.

Challenges en route to polio eradication

“…Several studies associate chronic parasitic infection (more prevalent among people living in poverty with a less westernised lifestyle) with less severe clinical presentation of COVID-19. 3,4 Such findings are consistent with the importance of a diverse microbiome and chronic immune stimulation in maintaining a well trained immune system that is less likely to cause hyperinflammation, which is critical in severe COVID-19.…”

“…In the pre-eradication era, polio infections began in infancy during exclusive breastfeeding, with a median age of infection of 15 months. 3 WPVs' basic reproduction number (R 0 ) was 40-45, 4 making faecal-oral transmission implausible, whereas the R 0 of measles was documented in HIV serosurveys in the 2000s in sub-Saharan Africa, in which the better-off had higher risk of HIV infection. 6 It is vital to deepen our understanding of microbiome diversity and linked immunological factors in the severity of COVID-19, and account for this when modelling COVID-19 infection-fatality ratios.…”

“…Estimates of preventability are exquisitely dependent on their underlying assumptions-as outlined by discussions surrounding population attributable fraction methodologies. 2,3 Further, insufficient clarity of such assumptions potentially reduces their use within policy development.…”

The Role of Adults in Poliovirus Transmission to Infants and Children

“…In pre-eradication times, polio began to occur in infants aged 4 to 5 months as soon as maternal antibody protection waned, reached the median age of 12–13 months, and saturated children by age 5 years. 14 , 15 Due to relatively high birth rates, children aged younger than 5 years constituted 10%–15% of the total population. A graph of this age profile would illustrate that exposure to infection is a function of age, with exposure at a fairly constant rate, largely unaffected by extrinsic environmental factors.…”

Lessons from Vaccine-Related Poliovirus in Israel, UK and USA

“…WPV and cVDPV, on the other hand, are contagious. Polio is a disease of infants and pre-school children with those infected having a median age below 15 months, typical of respiratory transmitted infectious diseases such as measles [33][34][35][36].…”