World Polio Day is celebrated on October 24 yearly to commemorate the birth of Jonas Salk who developed one of the effective vaccines against poliomyelitis. Setting aside a day for polio provides an opportunity to raise awareness and resources to battle the disease. Poliomyelitis called polio in short is caused by the polioviruses. It can be life threatening and may lead to paralysis and disability. There is no treatment for polio but effective vaccines are available to prevent the disease. With the advent of the vaccination campaigns, polio has been eliminated in some regions of the world. Afghanistan and Pakistan remain the two countries with continued transmission of the Wild Polio Viruses while sub-Saharan Africa are mainly affected by the circulation of the vaccine derived polio viruses due to poor immunization coverage.
At the ISID our mission is to support health professionals, non-government organizations, and governments around the world in their work to prevent, investigate, and manage infectious disease outbreaks when they occur. ISID has a particular focus in countries that have limited resources and which disproportionately bear the burden of infectious diseases.
