Before the availability of the polio vaccine in the 1950s, those wary of disabling diseases were afraid to let their children out, let alone go to school.Decades after polio was thought to be eradicated in the United States, it has returned, and Americans unfamiliar with the deadly disease need a primer to protect themselves and their young children. — Many of them are coming out of the trauma of the COVID-19 pandemic..
Q: What is polio?
A: Polio stands for “poliomyelitis,” a neurological disease caused by poliovirus infection. Of the three wild-type polioviruses (serotypes 1, 2, and 3), serotype 1 is the most pathogenic and most likely to cause paralysis.
Most people who get poliovirus never get sick and have no symptoms. About a quarter of those infected may experience mild symptoms such as fatigue, fever, headache, stiff neck, sore throat, nausea, vomiting and abdominal pain. So, as with COVID-19, asymptomatic people can unknowingly spread the infection when interacting with others. But in one of her 200 poliovirus infections, the virus can attack the spinal cord and brain. Infection of the spinal cord may cause weakness or paralysis of the legs, arms, or chest wall. Poliovirus can also infect the brain, making breathing and swallowing difficult.
People can develop post-polio syndrome decades after infection. Symptoms may include muscle pain, weakness, and wasting.
People with poliomyelitis can be wheelchair-bound or unable to breathe without ventilator help for the rest of their lives.
Q: How does polio spread?
A: The virus that causes polio spreads via the “oral-fecal route”. That is, it enters the body through the mouth, via hands, water, food, or other objects that are contaminated with faeces that contain the poliovirus. Rarely, poliovirus is spread through saliva and upper respiratory droplets. The virus then infects the throat and digestive tract, spreads through the blood, and enters the nervous system.
Q: How do doctors diagnose polio?
A: Polio is diagnosed through a combination of patient interviews, physical examinations, laboratory tests, and scans of the spinal cord or brain. Health care providers may send feces, throat swabs, cerebrospinal fluid, and other specimens to the laboratory. Test results should be sent to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Q: How can poliovirus transmission be prevented?
A: CDC recommends that all children receive a total of four polio immunizations at 2 months, 4 months, 6-18 months, and 4-6 years of age. All 50 states and the District of Columbia require polio vaccination for children attending day care or public schools, but some states allow medical, religious, or personal exemptions. The Children’s Vaccines program gives children eligible for Medicaid, uninsured or underinsured children, or Native American and Alaskan Native children polio her vaccines free of charge. It offers. Most people born in the United States after 1955 may have been vaccinated against polio. However, there are areas where vaccination coverage is dangerously low, such as 60% in Rockland County and 54% in Yates County, New York.
There are two types of polio vaccine: inactivated polio vaccine (IPV) and live attenuated oral polio vaccine (OPV). IPV is an injectable vaccine. OPV is easy to administer, as it can be administered by mouth or by dropping into sugar cubes. Both vaccines are highly effective against paralytic polio, but OPV appears to be more effective.
Both wild poliovirus and live weakened OPV virus can cause infection. IPV is a killed vaccine, so it does not infect, replicate, cause vaccine-derived poliovirus, or cause paralytic poliomyelitis. A weakened OPV virus can mutate and regain its ability to cause paralysis. This is called vaccine-derived polio.
Since 2000, only IPV has been offered in the US. Two doses of IPV are at least 90% effective and three doses of IPV are at least 99% effective in preventing paralytic poliomyelitis. The United States has stopped using OPV because the risk of paralysis is 1 in 2,000 for an unvaccinated person if he receives her OPV. Some countries still use OPV.
Polio vaccination began in the United States in 1955. Cases of paralytic poliomyelitis plummeted from more than 15,000 per year in the early 1950s to fewer than 100 in the 1960s and fewer than 10 in the 1970s. Today, poliovirus can be most prevalent in places with poor sanitation and low vaccination coverage.
Q: Why is polio rampant again?
A: The World Health Organization declared the Americas polio-free in 1994, but in June 2022, a young man in Rockland County, New York, was diagnosed with serotype 2 vaccine-derived poliovirus. The patient complained of fever, neck stiffness, and weakness in the legs. The patient had not recently traveled abroad and probably became infected in the United States.Since then, CDC has begun monitoring poliovirus in wastewater and has detected poliovirus in other counties.
Q: How do I know if I have been vaccinated against polio?
A: Although there is no national database of immunization records, all 50 states and the District of Columbia have immunization information systems with records dating back to the 1990s. Your state or territory health department may also have immunization records. Vaccinated individuals in Arizona, District of Columbia, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, North Dakota and Washington can access their immunization records using the MyIR Mobile app. It can also be accessed by those who have been vaccinated in Idaho, Minnesota, New Jersey and Utah using the Docket App.
You can also ask your parents, your childhood pediatrician, your current doctor or pharmacist, or any K-12 school, college, or university you attended if they have a record of your immunizations. Some employers, like the health care system, may also keep immunization records at the occupational health office.
There is no test to determine whether someone is immune to polio.
Q: If I was fully vaccinated against polio as a child, do I need additional polio vaccines?
If you received OPV, you don’t need an IPV booster. Adults at high risk of exposure to poliovirus at work, such as adults with compromised immune systems, those traveling to countries where poliovirus is endemic, or some laboratory workers and health care workers can get her a one-time IPV booster.
Q: How is polio treated?
A: People with mild poliovirus infection do not need treatment. Symptoms usually go away on their own within a few days.
There is no cure for paralytic polio. Treatment focuses on physical and occupational therapy to help patients adjust and regain function.
Q: Why has poliovirus not been eradicated?
A: Smallpox is the only human virus ever declared eradicated. If it only infects humans, if viral infection induces long-term immunity against reinfection, and if effective vaccines and other preventative measures exist, the disease could be eradicated. The more contagious the virus, the more difficult it is to eradicate. Viruses that spread asymptomatically are also more difficult to eradicate.
In 1988, the World Health Assembly resolved to eradicate polio by the year 2000. Violent conflict, the spread of conspiracy theories, vaccine skepticism, inadequate funding and political will, and poor-quality vaccination efforts have slowed progress towards eradication, but the COVID-19 pandemic Before , the world was very close to polio eradication. During the pandemic, childhood immunizations, including polio vaccination, declined in the United States and around the world.
To eradicate polio, we must eradicate all wild and vaccine-derived polioviruses. Wild poliovirus serotypes 2 and 3 have been eradicated. The most virulent wild poliovirus serotype 1 remains endemic only in Pakistan and Afghanistan, whereas vaccine-derived poliovirus continues to circulate in some countries in Africa and other parts of the world. increase. Ultimately eradicating polio from the planet may require a stepwise approach involving the use of OPV, a combination of OPV and IPV, and he uses IPV alone.
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(KHN (Kaiser Health News) is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism on health issues. Along with policy analysis and polls, KHN is one of KFF (Kaiser Family Foundation)’s three major operating programs. KFF is a donated non-profit organization that provides information on health issues to the public.)
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