Description
Poliomyelitis, often referred to as infantile paralysis or polio, is an infectious disease caused by poliovirus. This acute viral infectious disease is typically spread through two methods, a fecal to oral or oral to oral transmission. Varying types of paralysis may present depending on which nerve is involved.
Poliomyelitis is a term used to identify three different serotypes of disease; these include type 1 (Brunhilde), type 2 (Lansing), and type 3 (Leon). Two types of vaccines were developed to combat the disease. The Salk method, the inactivated poliovirus vaccine (IPV), is based on the 3 wild, virulent reference strains (1, 2, and 3) of poliovirus grown in monkey kidney cell culture (vero cell line) which were inactivated with formalin. The second vaccine is the oral polio vaccine (OPV). This is an inexpensive, attenuated poliovirus, which replicates efficiently in the gut (the primary replication site of the wildtype strain) however is unable to replicate within nervous system tissue. Antibodies should be detectable in animals post vaccination