With a case of polio reported in Rockland County, New York, adults may be wondering if they should… [+] get a booster shot of the polio vaccine after being vaccinated as a child.
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You didn’t think you should “Decide if you’ll get your polio vaccine booster as an adult” on your 2022 to-do list, did you? After all, wasn’t the United States declared polio-free in 1979 years after the polio vaccine had become part of routine childhood vaccinations? But then again, you probably didn’t expect to have “Read about how polio has re-emerged in the US” on your 2022 list.
Well, the resurgence of the polio virus in the United States has many people now checking to see if they got the polio vaccine as a child and wondering if they need a booster as an adult. As I covered in Forbes on August 6, an unvaccinated adult in New York has contracted paralytic polio, the first confirmed case of polio in the US since 2013. Additionally, samples of the state’s sewage have revealed the presence of the virus, which means that others, potentially hundreds of others, have already been infected with the virus. Obviously, anything that can cause paralysis is not a good thing to have. It’s also not something that can cause death, because death would ruin your day. So the return of the poliovirus, which used to leave an average of more than 35,000 more people disabled each year in the US, is clearly bad news.
Upon closer reflection, is this return really a surprise? There is a thing called cause and effect in nature. The World Health Organization (WHO) declared measles eliminated from the US in 2000 due to vaccination successes. But after years of some intentionally anonymous personalities, politicians and social media accounts blasting people with unscientific anti-vaccination messages, what do you think would happen? Measles vaccination rates dropped and, guess what, the US started having measles outbreaks again in the last decade. At the same time, polio vaccination rates have also been falling, although the vaccine has an excellent safety record and three doses of inactivated polio vaccine (IPV) are 99% effective in preventing paralytic polio, according to the Centers for Disease Control. and Prevention (CDC). Lower vaccination rates meant that the polio virus would have more bodies to infect, as if it offered the virus cheaper motel rooms to occupy and reproduce, and that is why the polio situation in New York is happening now.
Adults who were not vaccinated against polio as children can now receive the inactivated polio vaccine… [+] (IPV) in three doses, with the second dose one to two months after the first and the third dose six to 12 months after the second. (Photo by ED JONES/AFP via Getty Images)
AFP via Getty Images
So what should you do? If you are a boy, congratulations on your ability to read. If you can also write, you might want to leave your parents notes between burps to remind them to get your recommended vaccinations, including four doses of IPV at 2 months, 4 months, 6 to 18 months, and 4 through. 6 years of age. If you are older, check with your parents to see if they have vaccinated you. If they start talking about the “Deep State” and don’t want you to turn into a giant magnet with wrenches and anvils sticking to your forehead, you might want to track down your old vaccination records from your school or doctor to check for yourself if you are. effectively vaccinated as a child.
If you can’t verify this or if you’re sure you haven’t been vaccinated against polio, you can always get three doses of IPV as an adult. After you have received the first dose, you must wait one to two months for the second dose and then six to 12 months for the third dose. As an adult, IPV is as easy as one, two, three.
If you actually got the four-dose series as a child, that should theoretically give you lifelong protection. In theory that’s because, while studies have suggested that protection can last for decades, they haven’t yet determined specifically whether that protection will last a lifetime for everyone. So, yes, it’s possible that your protection after being vaccinated as a child may wane a bit at some point as an adult.
This is the reason for the CDC’s current recommendation that, as an adult who was vaccinated as a child, you do not need an adult booster unless you are at “higher risk of exposure to poliovirus.” Now, you may be wondering what exactly would put you at greater risk of exposure to the poliovirus? Certainly, if you plan to snorkel in the New York sewage where the polio virus was recently found, you could be at increased risk. The same would apply if you have close contact with anyone who may be infected with poliovirus or handle poliovirus in any way. So it’s a good idea to step up if you work in health care or a lab where any jar, test tube, or other container has the word “polio” on it.
The polio vaccine has been licensed in the US since 1955. Here Carol Ciminelli has a photo of… [+] herself as a child in one hand, and a copy of her Covid-19 vaccine card in the other, at her home in Amityville, New York, on August 10, 2021. In 1954, Ciminelli he was a “polio pioneer,” one of a group of 6- to 8-year-old children across the country who received a polio vaccine in a clinical trial to test the safety and effectiveness of the Salk vaccine. (Photo by J. Conrad Williams, Jr./Newsday RM via Getty Images)
Newsday via Getty Images
The CDC also recommends getting a booster if “You are traveling to a country where the risk of contracting polio is greater.” This includes Afghanistan and Pakistan, where polio remains endemic. Of course, one might wonder today whether New York or other parts of the US represent a place “where the risk of contracting polio is greater.” This may seem complicated, as the actual number and distribution of currently infected people is not known. Health departments simply do not have the resources to keep track of these numbers. This is what happens when the country invests so little in public health infrastructure.
However, at this time, you probably do not need to get an adult booster unless you are a healthcare worker, a laboratory worker who handles polio samples, traveling to a country where polio is still more widespread than in the US, or, otherwise, you may be around someone who has polio. a good chance of getting infected. At the same time, there is no real harm in getting an adult booster. Billions of people have received IPV since it was first licensed in the United States on April 12, 1955. If you’re on the fence about what your risk of exposure might really be, talk to your doctor. Your doctor may tell you to go ahead and get the adult booster. This should have prepared you for life against polio and given you peace of mind. You alone should definitely cross “decide whether to get the polio vaccine booster as an adult” off your 2022 bucket list. And your 2023, your 2024, etc.