Fears of a polio resurgence in the US have health officials on high alert – a virologist explains the history of this dreaded disease
2 years, 6 months ago

Fears of a polio resurgence in the US have health officials on high alert – a virologist explains the history of this dreaded disease

The Hindu  

Fears of polio gripped the US in the mid-20th century. Since then, collective fear of the virus has been mostly lost to history – many people alive today are lucky enough not to know someone who has experienced polio. So when news broke in July 2022 that an unvaccinated adult man in New York had contracted polio – the first case in the US since 2013 – and developed paralysis from the disease, it sent a ripple of fear throughout the public health community and raised the question of whether an old foe was making a comeback. In August 2022, New York State Health Commissioner Mary Basset said that the state health department is “treating the single case of polio as just the tip of the iceberg of much greater potential spread”. “Based on earlier polio outbreaks,” she added, “New Yorkers should know that for every one case of paralytic polio observed, there may be hundreds of other people infected.” A single case of polio reflects a larger potential spread of the virus because most people infected either don’t show any symptoms or have a very mild illness with symptoms similar to the flu.

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History of this topic

Letters to the Editor: I’m a polio survivor. RFK Jr. shouldn’t have say in the nation’s health policies
3 months ago

Letters to the Editor: I’m a polio survivor. RFK Jr. shouldn’t have say in the nation’s health policies

LA Times  

To the editor: I am a survivor of bulbar polio; I contracted it when I was 5 years old in 1946. I knew my children and countless others would never face what I went through, or face death or an iron lung. I can’t describe how angry I was to find out that an advisor to Robert Kennedy Jr. is …

Column: The latest evidence that putting RFK Jr. in charge of public health would be a disaster
3 months ago

Column: The latest evidence that putting RFK Jr. in charge of public health would be a disaster

LA Times  

Polio came for 5-year-old Lynn Lane when she was visiting her grandmother in rural Indiana. “I’m not in a wheelchair yet,” said Lane, who uses leg braces and crutches, “but it’s heading that way.” The idea that anyone would question the polio vaccine now, she said, “makes me nuts.” Last week, the New York Times reported that in 2022, Robert …

Polio survivor Mitch McConnell slams ‘dangerous’ push by RFK Jr lawyer to kill vaccine
3 months, 1 week ago

Polio survivor Mitch McConnell slams ‘dangerous’ push by RFK Jr lawyer to kill vaccine

The Independent  

Sign up for our free Health Check email to receive exclusive analysis on the week in health Get our free Health Check email Get our free Health Check email SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy policy Senate Republican leader and polio survivor Mitch McConnell on Friday condemned …

Trump nominee's top ally calls for polio vaccines to be pulled from market: report
3 months, 1 week ago

Trump nominee's top ally calls for polio vaccines to be pulled from market: report

Raw Story  

A lawyer helping Robert F. Kennedy Jr. pick his public health team for the incoming Donald Trump administration has asked the government to revoke its approval of the polio vaccine, according to a new report. Kennedy ally Aaron Siri, who represented him during his failed presidential bid, has also filed a petition on behalf of the Informed Consent Action Network …

Polio vaccines in Gaza amid the Israel–Hamas war: Water, disease, and health threats to Palestinians.
5 months ago

Polio vaccines in Gaza amid the Israel–Hamas war: Water, disease, and health threats to Palestinians.

Slate  

The expansion of the war in the Middle East has heightened the fears of citizens in Gaza that the war on us will be ignored. The war in Gaza is still getting worse in so many ways: the siege of the northern Gaza Strip and the spread of famine there; the deterioration of the economic situation; the increase in the …

The two vaccines that brought us to the brink of eradicating polio | Explained
8 months, 2 weeks ago

The two vaccines that brought us to the brink of eradicating polio | Explained

The Hindu  

In 1948, microbiologists John F. Enders, Thomas Weller, and Frederick Robbins were trying to find a method to grow different viruses in cell cultures. The poliovirus has only one natural host — humans — and many of the early strains of the virus were isolated from humans and wouldn’t infect non-human primates. Striking at ground zero Soon after Salk made …

Column: Trump and RFK Jr. want to make the world safe again for polio and measles. You should be terrified
1 year ago

Column: Trump and RFK Jr. want to make the world safe again for polio and measles. You should be terrified

LA Times  

Iron lungs are lined up in an emergency polio ward in Boston during the 1955 polio outbreak. — David Oshinsky, “Polio: An American Story” That includes 10 cases in Florida, where public health comes under the jurisdiction of Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo, a leading quack and established anti-vaccine activist. At a campaign rally in Richmond, Va., on Feb. 2, he …

Jonas Salk, the man who cured polio, "would be shocked" by anti-vaxxers, experts say
1 year, 4 months ago

Jonas Salk, the man who cured polio, "would be shocked" by anti-vaxxers, experts say

Salon  

Polio is a highly infectious viral disease that invades the nervous system and can trigger total paralysis in a matter of hours. Salk's work "was supported by the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis, better known as the March of Dimes," Jacobs told Salon by email. Salk "would be shocked" by the rise of the contemporary anti-vaccine movement, said Dr. Paul …

Explained | Is there a need for an extra dose of polio vaccine?
2 years, 1 month ago

Explained | Is there a need for an extra dose of polio vaccine?

The Hindu  

The story so far: The West Bengal government announced that it was introducing an additional dose of injectable polio vaccine as part of the Universal Immunisation Programme for children. An additional dose of inactivated poliovirus at nine months will protect against any polio thereafter — Vaccine Associated Paralytic Polio or Vaccine Derived Polioviruses, explains T. Jacob John, noted virologist and …

New York Citizens Panic after US Records First Polio Case, Rush to Get Vaxxed
2 years, 6 months ago

New York Citizens Panic after US Records First Polio Case, Rush to Get Vaxxed

News 18  

When Brittany Strickland heard that the United States recorded its first polio case in almost a decade, she was “deathly scared” — the 33-year-old wasn’t vaccinated against the disabling disease. Strickland was inoculated in Pomona, in New York’s Rockland County where the first US polio case since 2013 was identified in July. “You don’t think it’s gonna happen here, and …

L.A. County urges doctors to watch out for polio after New York paralysis case
2 years, 6 months ago

L.A. County urges doctors to watch out for polio after New York paralysis case

LA Times  

A man who received a polio vaccination outside a health clinic in Brooklyn, N.Y. Officials say that since the patient didn’t travel internationally during his likely period of infection, and because the virus has been found in wastewater, it’s likely that polio transmission is occurring domestically in the U.S. “Even a single case of paralytic polio represents a public health …

Polio Is Back in the US and UK. Here’s How That Happened
2 years, 6 months ago

Polio Is Back in the US and UK. Here’s How That Happened

Wired  

The discovery that polio has partially paralyzed a young man in a New York suburb feels wearying, yet shocking. “We have been saying that until we can get this fully eradicated, we are all at risk.” Public health experts consider this an emergency, because polio paralysis cases represent the tip of an immunological iceberg: For every person paralyzed, at least …

Polio has been silently spreading in New York since April, CDC study suggests
2 years, 7 months ago

Polio has been silently spreading in New York since April, CDC study suggests

The Independent  

The latest headlines from our reporters across the US sent straight to your inbox each weekday Your briefing on the latest headlines from across the US Your briefing on the latest headlines from across the US SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. The study from the US Centers for Disease …

Polio detected in New York’s sewage, suggesting that the virus is circulating
2 years, 7 months ago

Polio detected in New York’s sewage, suggesting that the virus is circulating

LA Times  

New York health officials reported a confirmed polio case last month, the first in the U.S. in nearly a decade. The polio virus has been found in New York City’s wastewater in another sign that the disease, which hadn’t been seen in the U.S. in a decade, is quietly spreading among unvaccinated people, health officials said Friday. The presence of …

‘Entirely preventable’: Polio likely spreading in New York City
2 years, 7 months ago

‘Entirely preventable’: Polio likely spreading in New York City

Al Jazeera  

Public health officials announced that the polio virus has been detected in the city’s wastewater and urged vaccination. The polio virus has been found in New York City’s wastewater in another sign that the disease, which had not been seen in the US in a decade, is quietly spreading among unvaccinated people, health officials said Friday. The presence of the …

Children under 10 will get polio boosters as virus returns to UK after 40 years
2 years, 7 months ago

Children under 10 will get polio boosters as virus returns to UK after 40 years

The Independent  

Children under 10 are set to be offered polio vaccine boosters amid a rise in the amount of the virus detected in London's sewage works. Health authorities plan to give children the shots regardless of where they are on their polio vaccine schedule, in a bid to prevent what would be the first community outbreak of the disease in the …

Polio fears rise in New York amid possible community spread
2 years, 7 months ago

Polio fears rise in New York amid possible community spread

Associated Press  

ALBANY, N.Y. — New York state health officials issued a more urgent call Thursday for unvaccinated children and adults to get inoculated against polio, citing new evidence of possible “community spread” of the dangerous virus. The polio virus has now been found in seven different wastewater samples in two adjacent counties north of New York City, health officials said. But …

Worried About Polio? Here's What Experts Want You To Know.
2 years, 8 months ago

Worried About Polio? Here's What Experts Want You To Know.

Huff Post  

ROGER HARRIS/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY via Getty Images For the first time in nearly a decade, vaccine-derived polio was detected in the United States. “The big lesson, with monkeypox and polio now: What happens somewhere else in the world, it doesn’t stay there,” said Dr. Scott Roberts, the associate medical director of Infection Prevention at Yale New Haven Hospital. “It wasn’t …

New York man may have contracted polio on U.S. soil
2 years, 8 months ago

New York man may have contracted polio on U.S. soil

Daily Mail  

A polio patient in Upstate New York is likely the first person to catch the disease on American soil in more than 40 years, evidence suggests. But the Rockland Department of Health told DailyMail.com the man had not traveled within the infection window — up to 21 days before symptoms appeared — meaning he likely caught the virus on U.S. …

What to know about polio and the first US case in nearly 10 years
2 years, 8 months ago

What to know about polio and the first US case in nearly 10 years

Al Jazeera  

Health authorities say the case may have originated outside of the United States. The first case of polio in the United States in nearly 10 years has been identified in the state of New York in a young unvaccinated man. The New York State Health Department said in a statement on Thursday the case in Rockland County may have originated …

New York reports 1st US polio case in nearly a decade
2 years, 8 months ago

New York reports 1st US polio case in nearly a decade

Associated Press  

NEW YORK — An unvaccinated young adult from New York recently contracted polio, the first U.S. case in nearly a decade, health officials said Thursday. It appears the patient had a vaccine-derived strain of the virus, perhaps from someone who got live vaccine — available in other countries, but not the U.S. — and spread it, officials said. But if …

New York Reports 1st U.S. Polio Case In Nearly A Decade
2 years, 8 months ago

New York Reports 1st U.S. Polio Case In Nearly A Decade

Huff Post  

This 2014 illustration made available by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention depicts a polio virus particle. On Thursday, July 21, 2022, New York health officials reported a polio case, the first in the U.S. in nearly a decade. Sarah Poser, Meredith Boyter Newlove/CDC via AP NEW YORK — An unvaccinated young adult from New York recently contracted …

The first U.S. case of polio since 2013 has been detected in New York
2 years, 8 months ago

The first U.S. case of polio since 2013 has been detected in New York

NPR  

The first U.S. case of polio since 2013 has been detected in New York Enlarge this image toggle caption Sarah Poster and Meredith Boyter Newlove from the CDC via AP Sarah Poster and Meredith Boyter Newlove from the CDC via AP A case of polio has been detected in New York, the first instance of the virus in almost a …

US reports first polio case in nearly a decade
2 years, 8 months ago

US reports first polio case in nearly a decade

Al Jazeera  

Person who tested positive in New York state no longer contagious, but investigators are checking if others were exposed. The United States has reported its first case of polio in nearly a decade after health officials in the state of New York said a patient had tested positive for the disease. “We are monitoring the situation closely and working with …

Israel in polio vaccine drive after recording first case since 1988
2 years, 11 months ago

Israel in polio vaccine drive after recording first case since 1988

The Independent  

For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy policy Israel has launched a polio …

Polio was eliminated in the Asia-Pacific. Then it suddenly came back
3 years, 9 months ago

Polio was eliminated in the Asia-Pacific. Then it suddenly came back

ABC  

One morning in April 2018, six-year-old Gafo woke up with aching legs. "This case was notified as the first polio case since 1992 in Malaysia," Dr Miraj says. Despite the small risk of vaccine-derived outbreaks, the oral polio vaccine is still being used in several countries because it has other major advantages, epidemiologist Meru Sheel says. "One of the reasons …

Polio: When vaccines and re-emergence were just as daunting
3 years, 9 months ago

Polio: When vaccines and re-emergence were just as daunting

Associated Press  

CINCINNATI — The COVID-19 pandemic and the distribution of the vaccines that will prevent it have surfaced haunting memories for Americans who lived through an earlier time when the country was swept by a virus that, for so long, appeared to have no cure or way to prevent it. “We adapt, and our children will have skills and strengths and …

Polio: When vaccines and re-emergence were just as daunting
3 years, 9 months ago

Polio: When vaccines and re-emergence were just as daunting

The Independent  

For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. “Everybody got on the bandwagon, and basically it was …

From Polio To The COVID Vaccine, Dr. Peter Salk Sees Great Progress
4 years, 2 months ago

From Polio To The COVID Vaccine, Dr. Peter Salk Sees Great Progress

NPR  

From Polio To The COVID Vaccine, Dr. Peter Salk Sees Great Progress Enlarge this image toggle caption AP AP Editor's Note: As this year winds down, we're looking back at some people we spoke to earlier in 2020, when the coronavirus pandemic was in its early stages. When I spoke to Dr. Peter Salk back in May, he told me …

World Polio Day 2020: Everything You Need to Know About Polio
4 years, 4 months ago

World Polio Day 2020: Everything You Need to Know About Polio

News 18  

World Polio Day is observed every year on 24 October to commemorate the birth of Jonas Salk, the American virologist who helped create the world’s first safe and effective polio vaccine. Salk’s vaccine was invented in 1955 but it was with the establishment of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative in 1988 by the World Health Organization, Rotary International and others …

The Race For A Polio Vaccine Differed From The Quest To Prevent Coronavirus
4 years, 10 months ago

The Race For A Polio Vaccine Differed From The Quest To Prevent Coronavirus

NPR  

The Race For A Polio Vaccine Differed From The Quest To Prevent Coronavirus Enlarge this image toggle caption AP AP COVID-19 isn't the first health crisis the United States has faced that experts say a vaccine will be needed to resolve: In the 1950s, people lived in fear their children might be stricken with infantile paralysis, better known as polio …

The Trump administration’s ludicrous approach to coronavirus vaccine (opinion)
5 years ago

The Trump administration’s ludicrous approach to coronavirus vaccine (opinion)

CNN  

Editor’s Note: Jeffrey Sachs is a professor and director of the Center for Sustainable Development at Columbia University. Jeffrey Sachs Courtesy Jeffrey Sachs Here is Azar’s astounding statement regarding the development of a coronavirus vaccine: “Frankly, this has such global attention right now and the private market players, major pharmaceutical players as you’ve heard, are engaged in this, that we …

World Polio Day: Newly designed vaccine may help stamp out remaining polio cases worldwide
5 years, 4 months ago

World Polio Day: Newly designed vaccine may help stamp out remaining polio cases worldwide

Firstpost  

Editor’s Note: This story was originally published on 30 September 2019 and has been republished in light of World Polio Day on 24 October 2019. The Sabin vaccine, which is taken orally, is composed of live but weakened viruses that won’t sicken recipients but will still create lasting immunity against polio. However, through genetic changes, the weakened vaccine virus can …

Salk’s drop of health
6 years, 9 months ago

Salk’s drop of health

The Hindu  

Even as recent as six decades ago, poliomyelitis was a dreaded, infectious and potentially fatal disease that paralysed its victims. Jonas Salk is the American medical researcher and virologist who discovered and developed the first successful polio vaccine in 1952. Progress By June 1954, 1.8 million children and adults, called polio pioneers, volunteered to be injected with Salk’s vaccine in …

Health workers in Syria rush to vaccinate 320,000 children amid sudden polio outbreak
7 years, 8 months ago

Health workers in Syria rush to vaccinate 320,000 children amid sudden polio outbreak

The Independent  

For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy policy Health officials in Syria are …

What is vaccine-derived polio? The last stumbling block in the worldwide fight to eradicate the disease
8 years, 1 month ago

What is vaccine-derived polio? The last stumbling block in the worldwide fight to eradicate the disease

The Independent  

Sign up to our free Living Well email for advice on living a happier, healthier and longer life Live your life healthier and happier with our free weekly Living Well newsletter Live your life healthier and happier with our free weekly Living Well newsletter SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. …

Polio then and now: the story of a crippling disease on the verge of worldwide eradication
8 years, 1 month ago

Polio then and now: the story of a crippling disease on the verge of worldwide eradication

The Independent  

Sign up to our free Living Well email for advice on living a happier, healthier and longer life Live your life healthier and happier with our free weekly Living Well newsletter Live your life healthier and happier with our free weekly Living Well newsletter SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. …

Vaccine shortage threatens polio eradication
8 years, 2 months ago

Vaccine shortage threatens polio eradication

The Independent  

For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. “We are projecting now that we won’t have the …

Jonas Salk's Polio Vaccine Makes A Comeback
9 years, 11 months ago

Jonas Salk's Polio Vaccine Makes A Comeback

NPR  

Jonas Salk's Polio Vaccine Makes A Comeback Enlarge this image toggle caption K.M. For many people, it seems like a relic — isn't the oral version, not the injectable, the vaccine that's supposed to end polio within a few years? "With the introduction of injectable polio vaccine, we are one step closer to seeing this disease ended for good," said …

Jonas Salk 100th Birthday: Polio vaccine developer's extraordinary achievement celebrated with a Doodle
10 years, 4 months ago

Jonas Salk 100th Birthday: Polio vaccine developer's extraordinary achievement celebrated with a Doodle

The Independent  

Sign up to our free weekly IndyTech newsletter delivered straight to your inbox Sign up to our free IndyTech newsletter Sign up to our free IndyTech newsletter SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy policy Google has celebrated the 100th birthday of Dr Jonas Salk, the American scientists …

On Jonas Salk’s 100th birthday, a celebration of his polio vaccine
10 years, 4 months ago

On Jonas Salk’s 100th birthday, a celebration of his polio vaccine

LA Times  

Few scientific achievements have had as swift and dramatic effect — and been surrounded by as much myth — as the development of the polio vaccine by Jonas Salk, who would have turned 100 on Tuesday. Murrow asked, guilelessly, “Who owns the patent on this vaccine?” Salk responded with a line that would become world famous: “Well, the people, I …

One more year of nil case and it will be ‘Goodbye, Polio’
12 years, 2 months ago

One more year of nil case and it will be ‘Goodbye, Polio’

The Hindu  

It is two years since India has had a polio case. One more before the country can say ‘Goodbye, Polio.’ The battle against the wild polio virus is poised interestingly in the nation that, not long ago, in 2009, accounted for nearly half the world’s polio cases. Three years of absence of polio cases, caused by the wild polio virus, …

A new type of polio vaccine on the cards
13 years, 7 months ago

A new type of polio vaccine on the cards

The Hindu  

Oral vaccines have played huge part in the global battle to wipe out polio. “In countries or continents where wild polio viruses have been eliminated, there should be a transition from OPV to inactivated polio virus vaccine.” Many industrialised countries had already made this shift, he pointed out. Employees will not be exposed to the wild-type polio strains and accidental …

Polio Survivors
30 years, 4 months ago

Polio Survivors

LA Times  

I would like to write a response to your editorial “A Frightful Disease is Banished”. There are many, many thousands of survivors of the polio epidemic that occurred before the discovery of the miraculous vaccine by Dr. Jonas Salk and Dr. Albert Sabin. Most of these thousands of survivors are now suffering with an unforeseen condition known as post-polio syndrome, …

Polio Banished
30 years, 5 months ago

Polio Banished

LA Times  

Your editorial “A Frightful Disease Is Banished” elicited memories of a terrifying day in 1950 when we rushed our 13-month-old son to the Communicable Diseases building at Los Angeles County Hospital, where we were given the dreaded diagnosis, “polio.” After four months of daily visits, he was able to be removed from the iron lung and was breathing without assistance. …

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