By: Ryan Schimmel

                Today we have eradicated and successfully defeated many vicious and tragic diseases that once ran rampant and unchecked in the 19th and 20th centuries. Two of the more major diseases that fall under this category are smallpox and polio. The United Nations W.H.O. (World Heal Organization) attributes 300-500 million deaths to small pox before the creation of a vaccine in the 20th century. Until creation of a vaccine for polio in the early 1950’s, thousands of children were crippled every year in the United States, leaving them on crutches or in leg braces for life. Even in the 1980’s polio had a staggering 350,000 cases annually worldwide.
               Times have changed since the 1950’s and even 1980’s. Smallpox has been eradicated from the wild, but sadly exists still in the laboratory for research and in biological weapons. However, to say polio has been eradicated and exists solely in the lab would be a lie. Polio has remained a wild disease, though in small numbers and on the brink of eradication for some time now. For instance, last year there were only 800 reported cases of polio, but misunderstanding of and neglect in the use of the vaccine has caused resurgences in polio cases worldwide.
               These problems with the vaccine are not actually with its design or function, but its use. Many underdeveloped countries that have poor public health awareness and education leave their citizens unsure and uneducated about the vaccine. In 2005, misinformation in India left one of its largest states of nearly 180 million partially vaccinated. Similar situations have developed recently in Nigeria where radical beliefs have lead people to believe the vaccine will sterilized them, kill them or give them AIDs. Even so, some countries fail to even provide the vaccine let alone attempt its administration.
               Ironically, partial vaccination is the cause of this terrible resurgence. The most effective form of the vaccine and the one currently being used most often worldwide requires the recipient to be injected with a live form of the disease. In most cases, there are no complications and the body stores information on how to battle polio; end of story. However, one child in hundreds will suffer complications, which can be either contraction of the disease, or in worst case scenarios the child becomes a carrier of the disease. The W.H.O. states that in order for the current live vaccine to be effective, 95% of a population must be inoculated, else the remaining population risks seeing an outbreak. This outbreak sources from direct contact with or waste from the few children who carry or have caught the disease from the vaccination. The very strain of polio that was developed, injected and mass produced to save lives, is taking lives because of simple, stupid and preventable human error and ignorance.
               Many health and aid organizations are currently campaigning in these countries where the vaccine is met with resistance so that populations can know that the polio vaccine truly is a life saver and not a conspiracy or genocidal tool. These organizations are also educating health departments worldwide as to the dangers and consequences of partial vaccinations. 2010 is looking to be a promising year for the vaccination as education levels are up and resistance to the vaccine is down. Hopefully, one day soon, we will be able to classify Poliomyelitis as a terrible disease eradicated from the wild.