Polio infection in the US is only an airplane ride away. Folks who know anything about the transmission of this disease have been saying this for years. Well, now it’s happened!
An unvaccinated man who lives in a New York community with extremely low vaccination rates traveled to Hungary and Poland recently and now has the paralytic form of poliomyelitis. Delays in getting children vaccinated during the COVID pandemic and antivaccination sentiment in general are fueling the most serious threat of polio in the U.S. in years, raising alarms across the country.
There is no cure for polio or the paralysis it causes but it can be prevented. Get immunized! The vaccine for polio is more than 90% effective. The polio virus is passed from person to person through fecal material and targets vulnerable children. As we all know kids may not be as vigilant with handwashing as we would like them to be so protect the children – make sure they and the adults that care for them are immunized against polio.
Polio is highly preventable, and its reappearance should be a call to action for all of us.
