A Polio Case in the United States. What Does it Mean?

largely thanks to the modern miracle that is the vaccine wealthy countries haven't had to deal with the polio virus in decades but now polio may be making a comeback and that's bad news it's also the topic of this week's Healthcare triage [Music] polio used to be an incredibly feared disease across the globe in the pre-vaccine period of the early 1950s the virus paralyzed more than 15 000 individuals per year in the United States alone many parents were afraid to let their children go outside unless they come into contact with the virus globally more than half a million people were killed or Paralyzed by polio before a vaccine was invented before we get into the potential of a polio comeback it's probably a good idea to have some background polio spread orally and is very contagious it hangs out in the throat and intestines and spreads to others via droplets think coughing and sneezing and contact with feces only about a quarter of infected people will show symptoms but anyone infected can pass the virus on to others symptoms are similar to that of the flu and usually go away on their own in two to five days however in a small number of infected people the virus can infiltrate the brain and or spinal cord and cause much more serious symptoms between one in five of every 100 people infected with poliovirus will develop develop an infection of the nervous system called meningitis a smaller portion of people will develop paralysis this can occur in the arms and or legs and in every 100 people that do develop paralysis the muscles responsible for breathing will become paralyzed in between two and ten of them without intervention those people will die so it's nothing to mess around with the vaccine the first version of which was announced in the mid-1950s to be safe and effective has played a large part in bringing the virus to heal while wealthy countries saw the virus eliminated much earlier than the rest of the world global vaccination campaigns have led to a significant reduction in cases worldwide and work is ongoing to eradicate the virus everywhere but for the first time since 1979 there's a case in the United States and signs of community transmission the individual who is located in Rockland County New York has a form of vaccine-derived polio what is that it's a rare form of polio infection that occurs after taking the oral polio vaccine there are two types of polio vaccine one that's injected one that's taken orally the one that's injected contains an inactivated form of the poliovirus meaning there's no chance of Contracting the actual virus the one that's taken orally contains weakened poliovirus that is not strong enough except in rare cases to cause paralysis but those rare cases do exist and we call them vaccine-derived polio the oral form of the vaccine that contains the weakened virus is still used in places where polio is endemic the primary reason for this is that this form of the vaccine is able to contain the spread of polio whereas the injectable form with the inactivated virus provides protection only for the individual receiving it places where the virus is not endemic including the United States use only this injectable form the man in question was unvaccinated and is now partially paralyzed it's unclear where he contracted the virus although investigation is ongoing alarmingly eight percent of waste water samples 20 21 of 260 collected from this man's County and a neighboring County as of August 10th tested positive for poliovirus infants should be receiving a three-dose regimen of polio vaccines before they're two years old in Rockland County only 67 percent of children under the age of two had received these vaccines in July of 2020. a number that decreased to 60 percent by August of 2022 in some zip codes only 37 percent had received them according to the CDC the overall percentage of children vaccinated for polio in the United States is 92.5 percent this is good but if we've got hot spots of low vaccination and we're seeing Community transmission we've got problems and the US isn't the only wealthy Nation with signs of spread though no cases have been reported the virus has also been detected in Wastewater samples in London while several factors are involved in viral spread vaccine hesitancy is a huge contributing factor many of us are too young to remember how scary it was to have this virus is present and have no protection from it parents were lining up to get their kids the vaccine when it first became available I've said it before and I'll say it again vaccines are often the victims of their own success let's not wait until we're scared again to protect ourselves and our children from this polio can wreak havoc but we have the means to prevent it let's take advantage of that hey enjoy this episode you might enjoy this previous series we did on vaccines in general sponsored by the nihcm we'd also appreciate it if you'd like the video subscribe to the Channel Down Below go on over to patreon.com healthcare triage where you can help make the show bigger and better we'd like to especially thank our research Associates James Glasgow Joe sevitz Edward little home and Brian Nam and of course our surgeon Admiral Sam [Music]

Channel: Healthcare Triage

Views: 9,880

Keywords: health, healthcare, health care, health insurance, health policy, Aaron Carroll

Id: oagtLPxmvNM

Length: 5min 6sec (306 seconds)

Published: Mon Nov 07 2022