The Fight Against Poliovirus
- InkSociety
- Jan 23, 2021
- 2 min read
By Eunice Kim
Cypress High School

Franklin D. Roosevelt, iron lungs, and vaccines. What do these three have in common? They are all related to poliomyelitis, a life-threatening disease that “can infect a person’s spinal cord, causing paralysis”, as defined by the CDC. With the onset of medical research in the past decades, the world has become closer to eradicating multiple diseases. Most notably, smallpox was declared eradicated in 1980. Therefore, scientists moved on to their next major virus -- poliovirus. While researchers have been overall highly successful, there are some minor complications.
Viruses come with multiple strains as they travel from host to host and mutate. The poliovirus has type 1, 2, and 3. Type 2 and 3 have been successfully eliminated, but wild poliovirus type 1 is the only strain that remains in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Much of this progress can be attributed to the oral polio vaccine. The oral vaccine prevents paralysis and viral spread -- polio is spread by ingestion of infected water or stool so the new vaccine multiplies in the gut to kill polio and prevent it from passing on -- but it leaves lots of room for viral mutations, similar to the way that viral poliovirus acts. Because the vaccine is multiplying uncontrollably, a mutation can cause devastating unintended consequences. That’s what happened with 854 cases linked to a type 2 vaccine-derived mutation.
Scientists were optimistic about finding a new type 2 virus vaccine and ultimately released an emergency-approved vaccine in November 2020. The new vaccine has multiple small tweaks. Researchers modified the viral genome to make the virus less prone to disease recurrence or acquisition. They also tinkered with an enzyme that is necessary for RNA viruses to replicate. This change slowed down the virus’ evolution.
While there are new strains that may come from new vaccines, I believe that vaccine development is essential. Vaccines are highly effective in building up the body’s immunity to foreign pathogens and have been at the forefront of fighting diseases like the flu, which has a 40-60% reduced risk of falling sick! Unfortunately, many still doubt the empirical success of vaccines, given that they can cause unintended outbreaks -- like the poliovirus. So, I interviewed a few peers to get their hot take.
Kenneth Yang, a senior at Fairmont Preparatory Academy, says that the risks are worth it. And I completely agree. Millions of people around the world have been able to fight off diseases like tetanus, Hepatitis B, rubella, measles, pertussis, and more because of vaccines.
Erin Choi, a junior at Orange Lutheran, warns scientists of risks, “I think that as science develops, scientists should consider heavily of those outbreaks so that there would be less of a risk.” Erin brings up a great point -- scientists should always be mindful of their work and its potential consequences.
Especially with the recent development of the COVID vaccine, it’s important to stay wary of the facts associated with vaccines and understand their overall benefits when compared to minuscule risk. The risk is worth it.
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