Polio (Poliomyelitis)
什麼是Polio (Poliomyelitis)
Polio (poliomyelitis) is an acute highly infectious viral disease which mainly affects young children. It is caused by three types of poliovirus, Types 1, 2, and 3. Poliovirus infection occurs in the gastrointestinal tract and spreads in a minority of cases to the nervous system.
Polio cases have decreased worldwide by over 99 percent since 1988 due to a global effort to eradicate the disease. In countries that report polio cases, roughly 70-80 percent of cases are less than 3 years of age and 80-90 percent of cases are less than 5 years of age.
您如何獲得Polio (Poliomyelitis)？
The virus responsible for polio is transmitted through contaminated food and water and multiplies in the intestine, from where it can invade the nervous system to cause paralysis. Many infected people show no symptoms but do continue to excrete the virus in their feces, potentially transmitting the infection to others.
易感性和抵抗力
Susceptibility to infection is universal, however, paralysis occurs in only about 1 percent of infections. Paralysis occurs more frequently in infected, non-immune adults than in non-immunised infants and young children. Type-specific immunity lasts for the patients’ entire lives. Second attacks are rare and result from infection with poliovirus of a different type.
有哪些症狀？
Many polio infections show no symptoms at all. When present, initial symptoms of polio include fever, fatigue, headache, vomiting, stiffness in the neck, and pain in the limbs. A small proportion of infections (one in 200) can cause paralysis (often permanent) in only a number of hours. Among those that experience paralysis, 5 to 10 percent die when their breathing muscles become immobilized.
預防措施
脊髓灰質炎無法治愈。它只能通過脊髓灰質炎疫苗進行預防，該疫苗在兒童早期曾多次接種。在未消除小兒麻痺症的地區旅行之前，請務必通過加強劑量使兒童接種疫苗保持最新狀態。在這些地區避免污染的食物和水很重要。
治療
There is no known cure or treatment for polio. It can only be prevented through immunisation.
疫苗接種
通常在哪裡發生？
自1988年以來，全球一直努力通過廣泛使用脊髓灰質炎疫苗接種來消除這一疾病。因此，2013年，世界上只有三個國家繼續報告零星的脊髓灰質炎病例。這些國家是阿富汗、奈及利亞和巴基斯坦。有時，脊髓灰質炎病例被輸入到已消除該疾病的國家，並且可能發生一些繼發性病例。安哥拉、尼日爾、乍得、剛果民主共和國和蘇丹南部都發生過此類案件。
最近，埃塞俄比亞、索馬里和敘利亞爆發了小兒麻痹症。
