Are many New Yorkers infected with the polio virus? — precision vaccinations

When the New York City Health Department announced a case of paralytic polio in Rockland County, New York, in July 2022, it was the first reported case of polio in the United States since 2013.

Because the patient had not traveled internationally during the potential exposure period, detection of vaccine-derived poliovirus type 2 (VDPV2) in the patient’s stool samples suggests a chain of transmission within the US from a person who has type 2 containing oral polio vaccine (OPV).

In addition, genome sequencing suggests the poliovirus has been circulating in New York for about a year, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Since July, sewage detection systems have confirmed the presence of the virus in New York City, Rockland and Orange Country.

Based on these numbers”[a] A paralyzed case is a warning sign that tells you there could be 100 or more people in the community who are not showing symptoms,” said polio researcher Yvonne Maldonado, MD, chief of the Division of Pediatric Infectious Diseases at Stanford University Medical School, in an interview with The JAMA Network, published August 25, 2022.

Although poliovirus infections are rare in the US and have not been identified outside of New York state, risk factors vary regionally, so it’s prudent to be aware of any local risk or signs of the disease, Howard Larkin wrote.

According to Aaron E. Glatt, MD, a generalized polio outbreak is unlikely.

“One patient doesn’t mean a pandemic, but we have to worry about that, so there’s no second, third, hundredth patient,” he said in an interview with JAMA.

dr Glatt emphasized that polio outbreaks can occur anywhere: “Nobody has control over it; every group, every ethnic group, every region of the country has its pockets of unvaccinated people.”

Infection with poliovirus, an enterovirus that primarily infects the intestinal tract, typically causes a flu-like illness.

Depending on the type of virus, 1% to 5% of people with infections will develop meningitis.

About 0.5% to 0.05% of those infected develop paralysis after infecting the spinal cord with the virus, and a small proportion of them die from breathing problems, according to the CDC.

While sewage monitoring is helpful, it can be incomplete, and “given the ease of travel, any area can be at risk,” said Jesse Hackell, MD, chair of the American Academy of Pediatrics’ Practice and Outpatient Care Committee, in an interview with JAMA .

In 2022, polio cases were confirmed in non-endemic countries in Africa, Asia and Europe.

For example, in March 2022, Israel confirmed the presence of poliovirus and launched the “Two Drops” vaccination program for millions of children.

Then the City of London, England, reported poliovirus in certain sewage samples.

Vaccine-like poliovirus type 2 (PV2) isolates have been found in several sewage samples collected by the London Beckton Sewage Treatment Works between February and June 2022.

This treatment plant covers a large catchment area in North and East London and has a population of almost 4 million.

On August 23, 2022, the UK Health Security Agency said: All children aged 1 to 9 in London must now receive a dose of polio vaccine. For some children, this may be an extra dose of polio vaccine on top of their routine immunizations.

And in New York, health leaders are also taking preventative measures.

The New York City Department of Health and Human Services issued a HEALTH NOTICE: Update #2 on August 19, 2022 stating: All unvaccinated or undervaccinated children, adolescents and adults should be brought up to date with all routine IPV doses recommended by the CDC .

This is especially important and urgent if they live, work, attend school, or have frequent social interactions with the communities in Rockland and Orange Counties.

The US CDC website states, “For best protection, children should receive multiple doses of a polio vaccine, and previously vaccinated individuals may receive a one-time polio vaccine under certain conditions.”

There are two types of vaccines that can prevent polio, the inactivated poliovirus vaccine (IPV) and the oral poliovirus vaccine that is offered abroad.

The IPV protects against both wild-type polio and this attenuated strain of poliovirus.

The good news is that IPV is readily available in the US.

In addition to public health clinics, local pharmacies and pediatricians provide polio vaccination services.

“Until poliovirus eradication is achieved worldwide, importation of both wild poliovirus and VDPVs into the United States is possible,” the CDC says.

PrecisionVaccinations publishes fact-checked, research-based immunization news curated for mobile readership.