What is polio?

Polio irreparably damages the central nervous system causing fever, vomiting and muscle stiffness, creating permanent crippling paralysis of the legs to half its victims, and death to about five per cent. Since the vaccine was introduced in New Zealand half a century ago, only a handful of cases of polio have occurred here, the most recent in 1998 when an unimmunised mother contracted polio from the faeces of her baby after its immunisation. Because of that case, the old vaccine of oral drops was replaced with a non-live polio vaccine that is now part of a multi-vaccine injection.