Although no one knows exactly how long polio has been around, malformed bones of Egyptian mummies and stone carvings from around 1400 BCE suggest the disease has dwelled among human populations for thousands of years.
The great irony about polio is that, while it was probably more prevalent in Pharaonic times, it only became a terrifying epidemic in ours. One reason offered by scientists is that in ancient times, infants were protected by maternal antibodies and likely developed lifelong immunity. But as hygiene improved in a rapidly modernizing world, people weren’t exposed to the virus until later in life, when they were no longer protected by their mother’s immune system. Although the introduction of polio vaccines in the mid-twentieth century quickly stalled major polio outbreaks in wealthier countries, it remained endemic in many parts of the world as late as 1988. That year, the World Health Assembly (WHA), the decision-making body of the World Health Organization (WHO), passed a resolution supporting the global eradication of polio. At the time, the virus was still circulating in 125 countries, where it paralyzed 1,000 people a day—filling parents with terror and hospital wards with children who, in many cases, would never walk again.
Read the rest of Bill Gates essay:
http://www.aucegypt.edu/gapp/cairoreview/Pages/articleDetails.aspx?aid=321
ps. I'm sure Bill is enjoying ridding the planet of one of the worlds worse scourges, and it is very noble and we're lucky (we = every living human on the planet) that he's chosen to spend his fortune on a venture like this, as opposed to just passing his fortune down to his kids ..... but at the same time I can't help but wonder if he's missing programming
The great irony about polio is that, while it was probably more prevalent in Pharaonic times, it only became a terrifying epidemic in ours. One reason offered by scientists is that in ancient times, infants were protected by maternal antibodies and likely developed lifelong immunity. But as hygiene improved in a rapidly modernizing world, people weren’t exposed to the virus until later in life, when they were no longer protected by their mother’s immune system. Although the introduction of polio vaccines in the mid-twentieth century quickly stalled major polio outbreaks in wealthier countries, it remained endemic in many parts of the world as late as 1988. That year, the World Health Assembly (WHA), the decision-making body of the World Health Organization (WHO), passed a resolution supporting the global eradication of polio. At the time, the virus was still circulating in 125 countries, where it paralyzed 1,000 people a day—filling parents with terror and hospital wards with children who, in many cases, would never walk again.
Read the rest of Bill Gates essay:
http://www.aucegypt.edu/gapp/cairoreview/Pages/articleDetails.aspx?aid=321
ps. I'm sure Bill is enjoying ridding the planet of one of the worlds worse scourges, and it is very noble and we're lucky (we = every living human on the planet) that he's chosen to spend his fortune on a venture like this, as opposed to just passing his fortune down to his kids ..... but at the same time I can't help but wonder if he's missing programming
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