Polio

According to the CDC, why should you get vaccinated?

Polio (or poliomyelitis) is a disabling and life-threatening disease caused by poliovirus, which can infect a person’s spinal cord, leading to paralysis.

Most people infected with poliovirus have no symptoms, and many recover without complications.  Some people will experience sore throat, fever, tiredness, nausea, headache, or stomach pain.

A smaller group of people will develop more serious symptoms that affect the brain and spinal cord:

• Paresthesia (feeling of pins and needles in the legs),

• Meningitis (infection of the covering of the spinal cord and/or brain), or

• Paralysis (can’t move parts of the body) or weakness in the arms, legs, or both.

Paralysis is the most severe symptom associated with polio because it can lead to permanent disability and death.

Polio has been eliminated from the United States, but it still occurs in other parts of the world. The best way to protect yourself and keep the United States polio-free is to maintain high immunity (protection) in the population against polio through vaccination.[1]

Who should get the vaccine?

Children 17 years and younger should be vaccinated if they have not yet completed the series.2

How does getting the vaccine work?

The schedule for polio vaccination for unvaccinated or under-vaccinated older children through age 17 years is 2 doses of IPV separated by 4–8 weeks, and a third dose 6–12 months after the second dose.[2]

Polio vaccine (IPV) may be given at the same time as other vaccines.1

[1] Polio Vaccine Information Statement (VIS) <https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/hcp/vis/vis-statements/ipv.html> [accessed June `7 2020]

[2] Ask the Experts: Polio <https://www.immunize.org/askexperts/experts_pol.asp> [accessed June 17 2020]