Q: I’ve examine polio showing once more within the U.S. Should I be nervous about my children?
A: It was reported over the summer time that an unvaccinated man in New York obtained polio and has developed paralysis, and there may be proof of the virus circulating within the state’s wastewater. The affected person reportedly contracted a type of polio that may be traced again to the dwell poliovirus used within the oral vaccine. This model of the vaccine has not been used within the U.S. since 2000. Health officers stated the virus in all probability originated abroad in an oral vaccine distributed there.
People who’re vaccinated shouldn’t be involved, however for many who are unvaccinated, this can be a purple flag.
We haven’t seen polio within the United States for the reason that Seventies and ’80s, and polio was declared eradicated from the Western Hemisphere in 1994. We know the polio vaccine works.
Polio is attributable to a virus that impacts infants and younger kids extra typically than different age teams. Most circumstances of polio are gentle. Paralytic polio causes muscle groups to be paralyzed, leaving some folks bodily impaired for the remainder of their lives.
Before the polio vaccine, widespread circumstances of paralytic polio within the U.S. led many mother and father to be nervous about letting their kids swim in public swimming pools or collect at film theaters or parks.
Since the mid-Nineteen Fifties, the polio vaccines have led to a dramatic decline — with over a 99% discount in polio circumstances all over the world. The “natural” or “wild” kind of poliovirus that contaminated kids many years in the past is eradicated from the U.S. and far of the remainder of the world.
Polio can unfold to different folks via contact with stool (poop) from an contaminated particular person or droplets from a sneeze or cough. It is transmitted from contact with fecal matter (stool or poop) inside one to 2 weeks after an individual is contaminated with polio. An individual who will get stool or droplets from an contaminated particular person on their fingers will get contaminated in the event that they contact their mouth. Children who usually are not vaccinated can get contaminated in the event that they put toys or different objects which have stool or droplets on them of their mouth.
An contaminated particular person can unfold poliovirus to others earlier than they’ve signs. The virus can dwell in an contaminated particular person’s stool for weeks. People can contaminate meals and water in the event that they contact it with unwashed fingers.
It is tough to detect polio or forestall it from spreading. Children who usually are not immunized are in danger. Most folks with polio an infection can have no signs. Infrequently, polio could cause paralysis within the legs and arms and even dying if muscle groups concerned in respiration are paralyzed.
Symptoms might start with a low-grade fever and a sore throat about six to twenty days after being uncovered to the virus. Children additionally might really feel ache or stiffness of their again, neck and legs for a quick time. Paralysis causes extreme muscle ache.
An individual is most contagious seven to 10 days earlier than signs happen and might infect others for one more seven to 10 days. No remedy is on the market for polio. Some kids absolutely get well from polio, however others are disabled for a lifetime or might die from the illness.
The greatest safety is the polio vaccine. In the United States, the inactivated polio vaccine is the one vaccine advisable. IPV is given as a shot by educated well being employees.
Most folks within the United States have been vaccinated towards polio and are at very low danger for polio an infection and paralysis. People who haven’t been vaccinated or who haven’t acquired all doses of polio vaccine are at greater danger if they’re uncovered to somebody who’s contaminated with polio or somebody who acquired the oral polio vaccine.
Stay updated on all of your kids’s vaccines, a few of which can have been ignored through the pandemic. Talk to your pediatrician in case you have any questions or issues.
Dr. Yvonne A. Maldonado is the chief of the Division of Pediatric Infectious Diseases on the Stanford University School of Medicine. For extra info, go to HealthyChildren.org, the web site for fogeys from the American Academy of Pediatrics. This column was supplied by Tribune News Service.
Source: www.bostonherald.com”