Last week, the World Health Organization announced that 2 cases of paralytic polio in southwest Ukraine are to be considered the first epidemic in Europe since 2010.

WHO experts note that in Ukraine there is currently a significant risk of an epidemic due to inadequate vaccination coverage. In 2014, only 50% of children were vaccinated against polio and other vaccine-preventable diseases.

The risk of spreading the disease is high in the country and the possibility of developing outbreaks in neighboring countries (Romania, Poland, Hungary, Slovakia) cannot be excluded.

A global immunization company has stopped the spread of the virus around the world, and it is only in Pakistan and Afghanistan that cases of wild strain of poliovirus have been reported this year. At the same time, outbreaks caused by the vaccine strain have been observed in Madagascar and Nigeria, i.e. a similar Ukrainian situation.

The oral polio vaccine contains a very attenuated polio virus and is very safe and effective in preventing disease. However, vaccinated children can isolate the vaccine strain, and in about 12 months, it can mutate into the environment and then cause paralytic forms of the disease in unvaccinated children.

Polio is a disease prone to an epidemic evolution. The polio virus very quickly “finds” and infects children who are susceptible to this virus.

According to WHO experts, the first 2 cases of polio in Ukraine (in children 4 years and 10 months) are only cases diagnosed in many carriers in whom the disease does not appear. Not only two children have been infected with this strain. Many other children and adults are carriers. The strain is present in the sewer system. And right now, it is time to lead all efforts to increase the coverage of the child population with immunization.

Polio vaccine strains tend to spread more easily and, as a rule, do not cause as many cases as a wild strain of the virus. In this regard, an adequate response to a single outbreak to date could stop the spread of the virus.

In Ukraine, there have been no cases of polio since 1996.

Turkey is the last country in Europe where polio was endemic, but since 1999 there have also been no cases of polio. The last outbreak in Europe took place in 2010 after the importation of the Tajikistan virus into USA, which led to the development of 14 cases of the disease.