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It's a bit more complex than that. The Smallpox vaccine was based on the virus of another species. The Polio virus is based on a weakened human virus - which, u

It's a bit more complex than that. The Smallpox vaccine was based on the virus of another species. The Polio virus is based on a weakened human virus - which, unfortunately, sometimes becomes infectious again and that is a problem in its own right. Also, the last pockets of infection are basically in war zones where it's difficult to get the vaccines to. But hopefully you're right - maybe we'll eradicate it in the next few decades.

tialaramex 8y ago
OPV is a weakened virus, that's why you took it orally, but the modern vaccine isn't, it's a conventional killed virus vaccine and, since it's dead, can't cause polio. Unfortunately the modern vaccine is also much more expensive (which is a problem in poor countries) and much less effective (which is a problem in countries with endemic polio).
- gpvos 8y ago
  I thought viruses weren't alive as such?
  - dfischer 8y ago
    Viruses being alive is a debated topic and doesn’t have an objective distinction from what I understand.
  - tialaramex 8y ago
    Sure, and neither is a car. But we understand if someone says "My car is dead" they don't mean merely that they switched off the ignition. If you prefer another word is "inactivated".
    - caf 8y ago
      "bricked"
    - gpvos 8y ago
      Anyhow, I'd like a more precise description of the difference between "weakened" and "dead/inactive" (which is what the parent of my comment was about).
Fomite 8y ago
There are two polio vaccines - the conventional live-attenuated polio vaccine works really well in developing settings, because it's cheap, multi-dose, and vaccinated individuals shed virus, which give people who were previously or un-vaccinated some protection via exposure. But if we ever get down to actually thinking "These are the last 5 cases..." it's entirely possible to use the killed virus formulation used in the U.S. and Europe. Where those cases are is a bigger pain.

tialaramex 8y ago

OPV is a weakened virus, that's why you took it orally, but the modern vaccine isn't, it's a conventional killed virus vaccine and, since it's dead, can't cause polio. Unfortunately the modern vaccine is also much more expensive (which is a problem in poor countries) and much less effective (which is a problem in countries with endemic polio).

gpvos 8y ago
I thought viruses weren't alive as such?
- dfischer 8y ago
  Viruses being alive is a debated topic and doesn’t have an objective distinction from what I understand.
- tialaramex 8y ago
  Sure, and neither is a car. But we understand if someone says "My car is dead" they don't mean merely that they switched off the ignition. If you prefer another word is "inactivated".
  - caf 8y ago
    "bricked"
  - gpvos 8y ago
    Anyhow, I'd like a more precise description of the difference between "weakened" and "dead/inactive" (which is what the parent of my comment was about).

Fomite 8y ago

There are two polio vaccines - the conventional live-attenuated polio vaccine works really well in developing settings, because it's cheap, multi-dose, and vaccinated individuals shed virus, which give people who were previously or un-vaccinated some protection via exposure. But if we ever get down to actually thinking "These are the last 5 cases..." it's entirely possible to use the killed virus formulation used in the U.S. and Europe. Where those cases are is a bigger pain.