Case of polio in the United States after 9 years. The Department of Health in Rockland County, which is part of the New York metropolitan area, has announced that it has sequenced the poliovirus in a person.
The authorities called for the situation to be monitored and if possible to carry out the polio vaccination to all those people especially the most fragile have not made it. But what is polio? Should we worry? Here is everything that is known at the moment.
New case of polio in the United States after nine years
It had been nine years since the US Department of Health had not registered a new case of polioa viral disease that is usually transmitted through the ingestion of contaminated food or close contact with infected people.
Gene sequencing performed in the laboratory ascertained that the infected person contracted a type 2 poliovirus derived from an oral vaccine. And since in the United States the only vaccine used against polio is thatIpv which cannot give rise to an infectious polyvirus, it is suspected that it came from outside the country where the so-called vaccine is still administered in some countries Opv which can result in infection.
It all started with a person who took the polio vaccine orally and then passed the virus to one or more unvaccinated people who then returned to the United States.
The department calls for surveillance, reassuring everyone that those who are vaccinated against polio are not at great risk. And in the moment that the polio vaccine is included in the school immunization program, most people are immune.
Those who are not are invited to complete the vaccination course as soon as possible, especially frail subjects and unvaccinated pregnant people. On the other hand, those who are vaccinated but directly exposed to the infection should carry out a booster dose.
“Based on what we know about this case, and about polio in general, the Department of Health strongly recommends that unvaccinated people be vaccinated with the IPV polio vaccine as soon as possible.” – the words of the New York State Commissioner for Health.
Poliomyelitis: what it is and health risks
It is a viral disease caused by three different strains of virus that is transmitted either by close contact with positive individuals or by ingesting contaminated food. Symptoms are very similar to flu and therefore fever, headache, vomiting, muscle pain, exhaustion. In some cases, however, the disease can have even more serious outcomes such as facial paralysis and even lead to death.
In fact, the polyvirus invades the nervous system causing damage to neurons and irreversible paralysis of the muscles including those of respiration which thus lead to death.
They do not exist polio treatment, the only weapon available remain vaccines. Thanks to these, the disease has been eradicated almost all over the world. In Italy the last recorded case dates back to 1982.
The viruses developed are two: one composed of the inactivated virus administered with an intramuscular injection and called Ipv. The other started to administer in 1961 is done orally and is capable of stimulating an effective immune response. This IPV vaccination campaign has made it possible to eradicate polio in the world thanks to its efficacy and safety.