A Mayo Clinic infection specialist calls the first case of polio reported in the United States in nearly a decade a “significant event.”
Since the case was reported last week, New York state health officials have already held two polio vaccination clinics. The patient, a resident of Rockland County, is a young adult who is not vaccinated against polio and has since developed paralysis.
Health officials say his symptoms started about a month ago.
“[That] means that during that month, that person was shedding virus and could potentially infect other people who don’t have good hand hygiene,” said Dr. Gregory Poland, an infectious disease specialist at the Mayo Clinic.
Rockland County health officials have deemed the patient no longer contagious, but investigators are still working to see if other people were exposed to the highly contagious virus.
This 2014 illustration provided by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention depicts a polio virus particle. On Thursday, July 21, 2022, health officials in New York reported a case of polio, the first in the United States in nearly a decade. (Sarah Poser, Meredith Boyter Newlove/CDC via AP)
Although respiratory and saliva transmission is possible, polio usually enters the body through the mouth from hands contaminated with fecal matter from an infected person.
With the case in New York, health officials say the person likely got it from someone who had the less effective oral polio vaccine. It is used in other parts of the world, but has not been administered in the US since 2000.
“Now, the oral polio vaccine is a weakened but live form of it [polio viruses]”, said Poland. “What is administered in the US now is inactive polio. [It] It protects you very well against polio and offers no risk of contracting polio.”
While the virus has been brought into the country by travelers with polio, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that the United States has been free of polio since 1979.
Vaccination rates are measured in two ways in Minnesota: nationally by the CDC and locally by the Minnesota Department of Health. The most recent data is from 2018 and shows polio vaccination rates for 2-year-olds in the high 80% and low 90% range.
“We want to do everything we can to make sure children are free from diseases like polio, which can have lifelong effects and leave children paralyzed or impaired,” said Dr. Gigi Chawla, vice president and head of general pediatrics from Children’s Minnesota.
Chawla adds that vaccination is the best defense against the virus and says adults can also get the vaccine.
Children’s Minnesota has information on how to schedule a polio vaccine, and you can find out if you’ve had a polio vaccine through the MDH website.
- For related stories: Ben Henry Mayo Clinic New York Nightcast Polio