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Poliomyelitis (polio) was a common illness caused by the polio virus. About half of the people who catch the infection get paralysis of a group of muscles which is permanent. This can result in a limp (lameness) or a very weak (flaccid) arm. If the muscles used for breathing are affected, it can be fatal. A vaccine for polio which is swallowed was developed in 1960, and is now used worldwide. Like many vaccines there was anxiety about its use initially, but by 2005 polio cases were reported in only 9 territories. However local anxieties about the use of the vaccine may make it difficult to eradicate completely. There is no cure for this disease. There were under 2000 new cases of polio causing paralysis in 2002, of whom about 10% died. Most of the polio deaths that year were of people who had been severely disabled by polio years before, but had eventually died because of polio's long term effects. Poliomyelitis caused 0.0015% of all deaths worldwide in 2002 with an average of 1 death per 10 million people. |
International Classification of Diseases-10 codes: A80, B91, |
Territories are sized in proportion to the absolute number of people who died from poliomyelitis (polio) in one year.
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All of the data we use is estimated; 
Open Population Map for comparison