Lecturer: How I wish there was polio vaccine then

KUALA LUMPUR: Lecturer Khoo Boo Hin (pic) wished a polio vaccine had existed when he was a baby.

Having contracted the virus when he was just 18 months old, Khoo lost his ability to walk properly after a fever.

“Those days, there was no polio vaccine yet. If there was, I would wish my parents had had me vaccinated,” said the father of one.

Polio, or poliomyelitis, is a crippling and potentially deadly infectious disease caused by the poliovirus. The virus spreads from person to person and can invade an infected person’s brain and spinal cord, causing paralysis.

“When my parents realised I could not walk after the fever, they brought me to hospital.

“My mother could not bear seeing me crying and scratching and took me home.

“She got some Chinese remedies to help me but nothing helped,” he said.

Khoo has walked with a limp all his life and was forced to use a walking stick a few years ago.

These days, he needs a wheelchair if he goes shopping because he does not have the strength to walk for long.

“Doctors say it is rare to see polio cases these days and patients are mainly those aged 60 and above,” he said.