Childhood polio vaccination rates are low in some areas of New York, increasing the risk of outbreaks
Nurse Lydia Fulton prepares to get the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine as well as the vaccine used to help prevent diphtheria, whooping cough, tetanus and polio at the Primary Care Clinic. children in Minneapolis, MN.
Courtney Perry | Washington Post | beautiful pictures
Childhood polio vaccination rates in some communities in the downtown New York area are as low as 37%, despite vaccine regulation, increasing the risk of outbreaks from the virus circulating in the New York City area. local for the first time in decades.
Polio vaccination is required in New York for all children attending K-12 kindergartens and kindergartens, regardless of whether they are public, private, or religious.
There is no exemption from New York state’s mandatory vaccinations for reasons of religion or personal beliefs. An exemption is only provided when a child actually has a medical condition that prevents the child from receiving the vaccine.
Despite this regulation, rates of childhood polio vaccination have declined in some communities. In Rockland County, a suburb of New York City, immunization rates for children under 2 years old fell from 67% in 2020 to about 60% in 2022, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. sick. In some areas of the county, only 37% of children in this age group were vaccinated against polio.
Children should get four doses: once at 2 months, a second at 4 months, a third at 6 to 18 months, and a fourth at 4 to 6, according to the CDC.
Overall, the polio vaccination rate in New York State for 2-year-olds is about 79%, according to health department data. Nearly 93% of children 2 years of age and younger have been vaccinated against polio in the US, according to a CDC survey released in October 2021.
But the case of a young man with polio in Rockland County this summer has raised alarm bells among public health officials. Wastewater samples collected since May in Rockland County, Orange County and New York City have tested positive for polio, clearly indicating that the virus has circulated in communities in the metropolitan area during many months.
According to the CDC, the adult case in Rockland County is only the second case of locally transmitted poliovirus in the US since 1979. New York State Health Commissioner Dr. Mary Bassett called The wastewater findings are alarming, and the CDC has warned that the virus poses an ongoing risk to unvaccinated people.
According to the CDC, every case of polio is a public health emergency.
Dr Adam Ratner, director of pediatrics, said: “This is a wake-up call that we have to fix this problem with our vaccination levels, because I have never seen a child with lung disease. iron and I don’t want that. infectious diseases at NYU Langone Health.
New York state previously granted religious exemptions to vaccine regulations in schools, which led to a drop in vaccinations, according to Ratner. This exemption was repealed in 2019 after falling vaccination rates led to a measles outbreak. However, the outbreak of the Covid pandemic in 2020 caused school closures and disruptions to health care providers leading to a drop in polio vaccination, according to the CDC.
“Even when people start going back to the doctor, because a lot of the schools are in remote areas, places that don’t enforce the vaccine regulation. So you’ve got a cohort of people,” Ratner said. the child may still be unvaccinated,” Ratner said.
Ratner says there’s only one way to prevent polio cases from happening again: “Get vaccinated – that’s the solution to this problem.”
The Rockland County Department of Health launched a campaign to help close the vaccination gap in late July, but the CDC said it did not administer enough doses to meaningfully increase immunization rates in the county.
According to the CDC, two doses of the polio vaccine are at least 90% effective in preventing polio caused by the virus, and three doses are between 99% and 100% effective.
What is polio?
Poliovirus – which can cause the disease known as polio, or polio – is a highly contagious and devastating virus that caused fear among parents before a vaccine. provided in the 1950s. On average, more than 35,000 people in the United States became disabled by polio in the late 1940s. There is no cure for polio.
The virus can infect a person’s spinal cord, leading to permanent paralysis of the arms and legs. In some cases, polio is fatal because it paralyzes the muscles needed for breathing and swallowing. Most people infected with the virus do not develop symptoms, but they can still pass the virus on to others and make them sick.
The virus, which lives in the intestines and throat, is spread through what doctors call the fecal-oral route. Young children are at particular risk when they put their hands, toys or other objects in their mouths with feces. According to the CDC, the virus can also be spread through respiratory droplets when a person sneezes or coughs, although this is less common.
A successful vaccination campaign has dramatically reduced polio cases from more than 15,000 people annually in the early 1950s to less than 10 in the 1970s. Since 1979, not a single case of polio has been reported. Which originates from the US?
“We got to this point in the US with a lot of effort,” Ratner said. “It’s sad to see us slipping with this.”
Globally, two out of three naturally occurring strains of poliovirus have been eliminated, according to the World Health Organization. But travelers have occasionally introduced the virus into the United States, and the strain currently circulating in the New York City area is almost certainly foreign in origin.
The strain picked up by adults in Rockland County is related to a weakened form of the virus used in the oral polio vaccine. The US stopped using the vaccine more than 20 years ago, meaning that someone who was vaccinated abroad brought the virus into the US. New York wastewater samples are genetically related to positive wastewater samples in Israel and the United Kingdom.
The oral vaccine uses a weakened virus that can still replicate in the human body and, in rare cases, the virus can revert back to the nervous system attack type. When this happens, a person newly immunized with the oral vaccine can infect an unvaccinated person and potentially lead to polio.
“That’s one of the reasons we don’t use the oral polio vaccine, because there’s always a risk of transmission, especially to polio,” said Dr. Waleed Javaid, an epidemiologist at Mount Sinai Hospital in New. with immunocompromised or unvaccinated individuals. York City. Oral vaccine is used in some countries because it is effective, inexpensive, easy to use, and generally safe.
The US uses a polio vaccine that is given as a series in which the strain of the virus is inactivated so it cannot replicate, spread, or cause disease.
According to the CDC, the polio vaccine is likely to protect people for many years after the primary series of immunizations, although the exact duration of protection is unknown. Adults who were vaccinated as children but are at higher risk of exposure to polio can get a booster shot. Javaid said anyone with concerns, such as those with weakened immune systems, should consult their primary care physician and find out if they are in a risk group and should receive another dose of the vaccine.
But there is no reason for the public to panic, Javaid said. Most people are vaccinated and protected against polio. And for those who don’t, the solution is simple – get vaccinated.
