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

A young man in a New York suburb has been partially paralyzed by the disease. It is the third highly infectious virus to hit the US in three years. In rich nations, where public health funding is presumed to keep populations safe, there hasn't been a resurgence of the disease for decades. The US, the Americas, and the UK all eliminated transmission in the 1980's. It was in the wastewater of the county where the young man lives, as well as in New York City and London.

In other parts of the world, it is still possible to get the disease. The campaign to eradicate it has been going on for more than two decades. In two countries where it has never been contained, and in 21 other countries where it has rebounded, there was a case of paralysis caused by the disease last year.

Disease experts were not surprised that it came back in Western nations. Funding cuts, vaccine hesitancy, forgetfulness, and the wily nature of the virus have undermined protection against the disease. The Vaccine Confidence Project founder says that this should be a wake-up call to people. We are all at risk until we can eradicate this.

Public health experts consider this an emergency because of the number of people who have been paralyzed by the disease and the number of people who have had no symptoms. It takes a while. The findings show that the disease may have been circulating in London and New York for several months.

London health authorities have offered booster doses of vaccine to any kids 9 years or younger, and New York City has urged parents to bring their children in for shots if they aren't up to date on their immunizations. According to Daniel Pastula, a physician and associate professor at the University of Colorado Anschutz Campus Medical, the vaccine is over 99% effective at preventing paralysis if you get it. If you are unvaccinated, or your children are unvaccinated, you are at risk for developing a paralytic form of the disease.

It's helpful to review a little history to understand how the disease ended up in these places. One for the vaccine and the other for how it has been used to chase the disease from the world.

The vaccine formula is the first thing you should start with. They were born out of a fierce rivalry between two scientists. The first formula to be approved uses an inactivated version of the virus, but does not stop the transmission of the virus. The formula that came a few years later was artificially weakened. Because it is a liquid that gets squirted into a child's mouth, it is cheaper to make and easier to distribute. The main weapon in the global eradication campaign was due to those qualities.