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Polio virus classification has been occurring for an extremely long time, but recent efforts by the World Health Organization hope to make this a thing of the past. Artwork from ancient Egypt depicts people with polio symptoms, including withered limbs and young children who need the aid of canes to walk. Official classification of the polio virus did not occur until 1840 when Jakob Heine helped to identify the specific condition of polio. The spread of the condition was rampant until the latter part of the 20th Century. In 1988 the WHO and the Rotary Foundation announced a plan to completely eradicate polio infection in humans. The number of clinical cases has decreased dramatically, from 350,000 in 1988 to only 1,310 cases diagnosed in 2007. If polio is eradicated, it will only be the second time in human history that a disease has been erased by science, with the first being smallpox.

A polio infection results from contact with and Enterovirus appropriately named poliovirus. The virus is extremely contagious and person-to-person contact can easily spread the infection. Apart from human contact, the majority of cases occur from ingesting contaminated food or water. Upon entering a person’s body, the virus may attack the central nervous system in approximately 3% of cases. Of this 3%, less than 1% of cases progress to the stage of paralytic disease where a patient becomes paralyzed from the infection. While this type of polio rarely occurs, spinal polio does occur at a much higher rate. This variety is the most common and occurs when the virus infects a person’s spinal cord. Specifically, it attacks the area of the spine responsible for coordinating muscle movement. As the virus attacks the spinal cord, the nerve cells become inflamed which can cause permanent damage to the present neurons. In most cases, the infection is only damaging to one side of the body, most commonly paralyzing or debilitating the movement of a sufferer’s leg.

The WHO’s plan to eradicate polio is being completed with the use of a polio vaccine. The first vaccine used a blood plasma and was effective, but was not considered a reasonable option due to the shortage of available plasma. However, many medical professionals came together to develop a vaccine that would be effective and easy to produce. The result was two vaccines, one created by Hilary Koprowski and the other more famous one created by Jonas Salk. Salk’s vaccine is very effective, with a 99% immunity rate after three dosages of the medication. Albert Sabin’s version of the polio vaccine was licensed in 1962 and has since become the prevalent vaccine of choice. As the world gets closer to full eradication, polio virus classification may become an idea of the past.