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Public employee Geny Barros 42 is proud to repeat her mother's reports: at six months old, she was already a very active baby, starting to crawl. The family lived inside Mato Grosso do Sul, far from a hospital or some sort of medical clinic.
When the child had a very high fever, the diagnosis was the pharmacist who lived in the area: meningitis. Unhappy, the father took Geny to the hospital of Goiás and there only the doctors could explain why the girl was paralyzed, could only move the neck, she had been infected by the poliomyelitis virus
. At that time, people did not know the disease, "says Geny
. Back home, the family helped the baby do the exercises given by the doctors. inside. According to Geny, because "the disease affected my spine, which had the shape of the letter S, my feet never got back to normal, I could never walk."
polio alert
According to the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation (Fiocruz), polio is a contagious disease caused by a virus that lives in the intestines, called polio.
The virus multiplies first where it enters the body, either in the mouth, throat or intestines, or through contact with infected excreta or feces. by the secretions expelled from the patient.
In most people, the virus causes only mild symptoms such as fever and sore throat.
Case of Geny, where the disease develops Paralysis and permanent sequelae represent about 1%, but were already very frequent in Brazil, especially in the early twentieth century, when there was still no vaccine , discovered in 1953, the first tests were only done in 1955.
back
Polio was eradicated in the Americas for more than 25 years. In Brazil, the last case was recorded in 1990.
Last month, the World Health Organization (WHO) even announced a possible case in an indigenous community in Venezuela but a few days later, laboratory tests excluded the possibility.
Nevertheless, there is a risk that the disease may return to the victims in Brazil. Last Thursday (28th), the Ministry of Health published a list of 312 cities where vaccination coverage was less than 50% in 2017.
According to pediatrician Renato Kfouri, president of the Brazilian Society of Pediatrics, the "La vaccination is the only way to maintain the eradication of the disease, coverage of less than 80% is already a huge risk, "says pediatrician
Kfouri explains that it is unlikely that the disease will again become a victim wild virus, which has been eradicated, but unvaccinated children can become infected with the vaccine virus.
This is possible because there are two types of polio vaccines: and inactivated live virus – the famous droplets.
In children less than one year of age who receive the live virus vaccine, "this virus can mutate into the body and become stronger, that is, recover the virus.
According to Renato Kfouri, l & # 39; one of the main reasons for the decline in immunization coverage in recent years is the lack of awareness among parents.
"Since there are no long-standing cases, there is a loss of perception of risk . I do not remember how polio can be aggressive. A vaccination companion succeeds when the disease causes casualties, when this does not happen, people lose track of what the disease represents and end up neglecting the risk. "
According to the doctor, this lack of awareness also affects health professionals, who end up" not charging children the way they should ".
For Geny, who faces the consequences of the disease every day it is difficult to understand why parents do not vaccinate their children.
"In my time, I had no vaccine, but today, just bring it to the health center, it 's just a drop, and it' s just free. "
New Immunization Campaign
The Brazilian Society of Immunization (Sbin), the polio vaccination program should begin at two months of life, with two doses to four and six months, as well as reinforcements between 15 and 18 months and five years.
The average immunization coverage in the country is less than 95% – which would be ideal. To increase this index, a new vaccination campaign has been scheduled by the Ministry of Health and is scheduled to take place throughout Brazil between 6 and 24 August.
Learn what diseases can be prevented by a vaccine:
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