Polio On the Rise

May 1, 2026 Graham Colm, A transmission electron micrograph of Poliovirus.

By Liam Conway-Pearson

May 8, 2026

Poliomyelitis, more commonly known as polio, a disease thought to have been all but eradicated throughout the world, has recently been declared to be an international emergency by the World Health Organization (WHO). The disease is perhaps most famous in modern American minds for being the cause of the paralysis of US President Franklin Roosevelt, but it was once a prevalent and debilitating illness in the Western world. The illness is caused by the polio virus, which is spread through contaminated food and water by fecal matter or other biological contaminants. Once a person is infected, the disease colonized the gastrointestinal tract and in many situations may remain totally asymptomatic (90% of cases). In rare cases (0.5%), permanent paralysis is a result. More commonly for symptomatic patients, partial paralysis results as the virus invades the central nervous system, destroying motor neurons and inhibiting motion. In some cases (5-10%), patients lose the ability to breathe through respiratory paralysis and die.

Through coordinated hygiene and immunization efforts, polio was largely eradicated during the course of the 20th century, with the last case in the United States being in 1979. As polio is a virus, there are no antibiotics for it, and no cure in the form of an antiviral has been developed. As such, the only treatment that can be offered is palliative care. Over the past year, cases of polio have been on the rise in several countries, specifically in Pakistan. 59 of the 74 cases so far in 2013 have been discovered in Pakistan, resulting in a worldwide call for mass immunization and containment. The Pakistani government has set up mandatory immunization checkpoints for anyone wishing to travel abroad at airports or border crossings to prevent international spread. Since it is asymptomatic in so many cases, this is the only way to make relatively sure that the disease’s spread is limited.

Unfortunately, some militia groups such as the Taliban have attacked several of these immunization checkpoints, causing considerable trouble for the Pakistani government, and allowing the disease to travel further than it would have otherwise. These groups believe that the checkpoints exist for spying purposes. Such attacks have allowed the virus to spread into Syria, a region torn apart by brutal civil war and relatively closed to international efforts to fight the disease. Other countries at risk for massive polio outbreaks include Afghanistan, Equatorial Guinea, Ethiopia, Iraq, Somalia, and Nigeria. A coordinated international effort may be the only way to prevent the spread of this terrible disease.