Why we still need polio jab

OCT 24 is World Polio Day. For most of us, the only time we talk about polio is at the paediatrician’s clinic when the doctor or nurse tells us about the polio vaccine. It was a part of our distant past. The last case in Malaysia was in the year 2000. Yet our children still need polio vaccines. Why?

This is because polio infections still occur in some unvaccinated parts of the world. So far in 2016, there have been 27 cases of wild polio in the world (15 in Pakistan, nine in Afghanistan and three in Nigeria). This is a far cry from 1988 when there were 350,000 cases a year.