Prevent Polio in Children Right Now!

Polio or poliomyelitis is a paralysis disease that is caused by a virus. An agent of polio is a virus called poliovirus (PV). These viruses enter through the mouth and infect the intestinal tract. Then, the virus will enter the bloodstream and affects the central nervous system, resulting muscle weakness and sometimes causing paralysis.

Polio is a dangerous childhood disease. Toddlers up to children aged 14 are susceptible to this disease so that Mommy has to provide child vaccination so that the baby is free from  this terrible disease.

In children, the symptom of polio that arises is mild symptoms so that they become immune to the disease, however, the provision of polio vaccines to prevent the occurrence of polio in the future is already applied.

Beware of Polio Symptoms

Based on the basic pattern, the symptoms of polio are divided into three kinds: subclinical infections, the symptoms of non-paralytic and paralytic poliomyelitis. Subclinical infection lasts about 72 hours or less. Signs of subclinical infection are fever, headache, sore throat, and vomiting.

For non-paralytic symptoms, these symptoms last about 1 to 2 weeks with signs of fever, stiff neck, headache, vomiting, diarrhea, significant fatigue, cranky, muscle pain, muscle stiffness, leg pain, neck pain, and skin rash.

The paralytic poliomyelitis is characterized by fever 5 to 7 days before other signs, develop into paralysis, headaches, rapid onset, pain, painful to swallow, cranky, drool, and muscle spasms. If Mommy sees symptoms like this, Mommy should immediately see a pediatrician to confirm about these symptoms.

Mandatory Immunization

To prevent this health problem, the government has required the polio immunization for babies. Polio vaccine is given as three doses successively within 6 to 8 weeks.

Polio vaccine administration can vary. There is a polio vaccine given to mouth or OPV and vaccine given by injection or IPV. Polio vaccine which is administered orally is given 0.1 ml or two drops and should be repeated if for 10 minutes during the administration of the vaccine fluid regurgitated by the baby.

Meanwhile, injectable polio vaccine is given 0.5 ml for three times administration in a row. The range of this vaccine administration is 2 months.

Polio vaccine in infants nowadays may be given simultaneously with other immunizations like DPT and HiB or commonly known as a combo immunization. Using the combo immunization certainly has greater benefits than PPI immunization.

The advantage of using combo immunization is the child will directly get three kinds of vaccines in one injection. However, the price of combo immunization is also much more expensive than a polio vaccine.