First polio case in almost a decade recorded in NY

[lea]

A young unvaccinated 20-something who has developed paralysis. Believed to have caught it from someone who had received the oral vaccine overseas (since it’s no longer offered here). I remember reading recently they had found this strain in wastewater in London so I guess I am now not surprised we have at least one known case here.

apnews.com/article/polio-case-new-york-4c1e2512145a1d897982f27507259d83

[suburbanzookeeper]

I don't have anything positive to say... but eep.

[fernweh]

Is this something we generally still vaccinate for in the US? I guess this is to say I know I had all my vaccines as a kid but I don’t know if polio was specifically one of them.

I know it was only 1 case but since covid is never going away and monkey pox is getting worse, I just don’t need anything else I need to worry about.

[carmenere]

Jul 22, 2022 12:13:59 GMT -5 fernweh said:

Is this something we generally still vaccinate for in the US? I guess this is to say I know I had all my vaccines as a kid but I don’t know if polio was specifically one of them.

I know it was only 1 case but since covid is never going away and monkey pox is getting worse, I just don’t need anything else I need to worry about.

We do vaccinate kids. Specifically the US and many other countries vaccinate with inactivated virus, but some countries use oral vaccines with live (but weakened) virus that can cause a contagious infection. The article says it's likely this unvaccinated person came into contact with someone infected via an oral vaccine. The vast majority of Americans have no need to worry.

[suburbanzookeeper]

Jul 22, 2022 12:13:59 GMT -5 fernweh said:

Is this something we generally still vaccinate for in the US? I guess this is to say I know I had all my vaccines as a kid but I don’t know if polio was specifically one of them.

I know it was only 1 case but since covid is never going away and monkey pox is getting worse, I just don’t need anything else I need to worry about.

@@@@@@

Yes. CDC schedule: 

"CDC recommends that children in the United States receive inactivated poliovirus vaccine (IPV) to protect against polio, or poliomyelitis. IPV is given by injection in the leg or arm, depending the person’s age. It may be given at the same time as other vaccines.



Children get four doses of IPV, with one dose at each of these ages:



2 months

4 months

6 through 18 months

4 through 6 years"

[mrsslocombe]

Does immunity from the polio vaccine wane as an adult, like measles, smallpox, etc?

@
This makes me think of the anti-vaxer I know who said she didn't *need* to give her kids the polio vax because we don't have polio here.

[lahoagie]

Jul 22, 2022 12:17:02 GMT -5 carmenere said:

Jul 22, 2022 12:13:59 GMT -5 fernweh said:

Is this something we generally still vaccinate for in the US? I guess this is to say I know I had all my vaccines as a kid but I don’t know if polio was specifically one of them.

I know it was only 1 case but since covid is never going away and monkey pox is getting worse, I just don’t need anything else I need to worry about.

We do vaccinate kids. Specifically the US and many other countries vaccinate with inactivated virus, but some countries use oral vaccines with live (but weakened) virus that can cause a contagious infection. The article says it's likely this unvaccinated person came into contact with someone infected via an oral vaccine. The vast majority of Americans have no need to worry.

You can also get a polio booster. It was recommended to me because I traveled to a country that still had polio. I do not know if they recommend it in general.

[lea]

Jul 22, 2022 12:13:59 GMT -5 fernweh said:

Is this something we generally still vaccinate for in the US? I guess this is to say I know I had all my vaccines as a kid but I don’t know if polio was specifically one of them.

I know it was only 1 case but since covid is never going away and monkey pox is getting worse, I just don’t need anything else I need to worry about.

Yes.

I’ve seen online that this case is in an under-vaccinated area that also experienced a measles outbreak a few years ago so if that’s the case, I sincerely hope it doesn’t start spreading among that population.

[Patsy Baloney]

Might need to @@@ this thread, since I have a feeling there will be a lot of anecdotes.

I feel like we’re in the “and find out” phase of all the anti vax folks fucking around.

[Saudade]

Jul 22, 2022 12:25:02 GMT -5 Patsy Baloney said:

I feel like we’re in the “and find out” phase of all the anti vax folks fucking around.

We definitely are.


The anti-vaxing crowd will soon find out  

[Susie]

Damnit Rockland County.  Again?

Didn't we just do this with measles, in the same place, with the same population, like 3 years ago?

[chickadee77]

Jul 22, 2022 12:32:23 GMT -5 Saudade said:

Jul 22, 2022 12:25:02 GMT -5 Patsy Baloney said:

I feel like we’re in the “and find out” phase of all the anti vax folks fucking around.

We definitely are.


The anti-vaxing crowd will soon find out  

@@

Unfortunately, so will immuno-compromised people. Those are the folks for whom I feel really bad (as well as the little kids whose parents are making shitty decisions).

I know you know this, though.

[Deleted]

Jul 22, 2022 12:21:57 GMT -5 mrsslocombe said:

Does immunity from the polio vaccine wane as an adult, like measles, smallpox, etc?

@
This makes me think of the anti-vaxer I know who said she didn't *need* to give her kids the polio vax because we don't have polio here.

I got a booster before traveling to Africa last year. Polio is still very much active in some parts of the continent.

[livinitup]

This might be a good time to fine tune our language around “eradicated” diseases. We never eradicated them in the US. We just did really well to suppress them with vaccines, so they did not emerge into the population.

Until now. Go figure.

Some in our medical community regret using the overly optimistic language. Also - thanks, anti-vaxxers. We warned you.

[sonrisa]

anti-vaxxers are definitely going to focus on this case "coming from" a vaccination rather than "might have been prevented by" a vaccination. ugh.

[quesyrah]

Jul 22, 2022 19:46:43 GMT -5 sonrisa said:

anti-vaxxers are definitely going to focus on this case "coming from" a vaccination rather than "might have been prevented by" a vaccination. ugh.

The one anti vaxxer I still associate with is definitely being very vocal about that.

See! Vaccines don’t work! Insert all the eye rolls….

[basilosaurus]

Jul 22, 2022 12:21:57 GMT -5 mrsslocombe said:

Does immunity from the polio vaccine wane as an adult, like measles, smallpox, etc?

@
This makes me think of the anti-vaxer I know who said she didn't *need* to give her kids the polio vax because we don't have polio here.

I was told as part of my slate of vaccines when I went to Malawi that it would be a good idea to get boosted due to ongoing outbreaks in nearby countries. I'm guessing most of us got the O(ral)PV. I think they switched to IPV in the mid 90s. My booster was IPV.

[dale]

Jul 22, 2022 12:44:50 GMT -5 Susie said:

Damnit Rockland County.  Again?

Didn't we just do this with measles, in the same place, with the same population, like 3 years ago?

Yep, and all the anti-vax parents from around the county came out of the woodwork then and marched on Albany to argue against their kids getting the measles vaccine. Can't wait to see what happens here now.

[pixy0stix]

Sigh... Just add it to the pile. At least this one is fairly easy to control now.

[marcyiam]

S/O question - other than tetanus, can someone remind me if there are other vaccines we need to remember to keep getting/boosting as an adult on a specific schedule?

[wanderingback]

Jul 23, 2022 18:25:15 GMT -5 marcyiam said:

S/O question - other than tetanus, can someone remind me if there are other vaccines we need to remember to keep getting/boosting as an adult on a specific schedule?

Nothing other than the flu vaccine. There are vaccines you get as an adult, but I don't think that's what you're asking.

[marcyiam]

Jul 23, 2022 19:03:06 GMT -5 wanderingback said:

Jul 23, 2022 18:25:15 GMT -5 marcyiam said:

S/O question - other than tetanus, can someone remind me if there are other vaccines we need to remember to keep getting/boosting as an adult on a specific schedule?

Nothing other than the flu vaccine. There are vaccines you get as an adult, but I don't think that's what you're asking.

Thank you!

[Deleted]

Jul 23, 2022 18:25:15 GMT -5 marcyiam said:

S/O question - other than tetanus, can someone remind me if there are other vaccines we need to remember to keep getting/boosting as an adult on a specific schedule?

If you go see a doctor regularly for checkups, they will make sure that you’re up-to-date. Also, if you do foreign travel you may require additional vaccines.

[whatnext]

Jul 23, 2022 18:25:15 GMT -5 marcyiam said:

S/O question - other than tetanus, can someone remind me if there are other vaccines we need to remember to keep getting/boosting as an adult on a specific schedule?

I've had whooping cough vaccine in the past 10 years, my sister got whooping cough so I think there was a question of if it had been missed

[wanderingback]

Jul 23, 2022 23:03:37 GMT -5 whatnext said:

Jul 23, 2022 18:25:15 GMT -5 marcyiam said:

S/O question - other than tetanus, can someone remind me if there are other vaccines we need to remember to keep getting/boosting as an adult on a specific schedule?

I've had whooping cough vaccine in the past 10 years, my sister got whooping cough so I think there was a question of if it had been missed

The whooping cough vaccine is often included in the tetanus vaccine. It’s called Tdap. However the official cdc recommendations say get the Tdap once as an adult if you’ve never had it and then every 10 years get Td (tetanus and diphtheria) OR Tdap. But everywhere I’ve worked they’ve had Tdap and that’s what’s offered at my city’s health department so I think a lot of people get the full Tdap if they stay up to date with their vaccines.

[formerlyak]

Jul 23, 2022 18:25:15 GMT -5 marcyiam said:

S/O question - other than tetanus, can someone remind me if there are other vaccines we need to remember to keep getting/boosting as an adult on a specific schedule?

@@@

Before I got pregnant my doctor suggested a tiger to make sure I still had rubella immunity. I did not, so I was given a booster. I don’t think that’s a matter of regular boosters though. Just something some Obs suggest if they know you are trying to get pregnant. I was thankful I got it because I was exposed to mumps while pregnant which is one of the Ms in MMR.

[Velar Fricative]

Bumping to share that polio samples in wastewater in Rockland County (where the polio case was found) were present a month before health officials confirmed the positive case.

www.reuters.com/world/us/polio-found-new-york-wastewater-state-assesses-virus-spread-2022-08-01/

[tiki]

Aug 2, 2022 11:37:39 GMT -5 Velar Fricative said:

Bumping to share that polio samples in wastewater in Rockland County (where the polio case was found) were present a month before health officials confirmed the positive case.

www.reuters.com/world/us/polio-found-new-york-wastewater-state-assesses-virus-spread-2022-08-01/

Wasterwater monitoring is such an amazing tool for public health. Fingers crossed that proactive checking for key human pathogens like polio can become routine practice nationwide.

[Velar Fricative]

Aug 2, 2022 12:40:48 GMT -5 tiki said:

Aug 2, 2022 11:37:39 GMT -5 Velar Fricative said:

Bumping to share that polio samples in wastewater in Rockland County (where the polio case was found) were present a month before health officials confirmed the positive case.

www.reuters.com/world/us/polio-found-new-york-wastewater-state-assesses-virus-spread-2022-08-01/

Wasterwater monitoring is such an amazing tool for public health. Fingers crossed that proactive checking for key human pathogens like polio can become routine practice nationwide.

I know! Obviously in this case, it's not like staff are looking for polio all the time, so I understand they needed to backtrack a bit once the case was confirmed to see if it had been detected in wastewater. But I do hope we can invest in real-time monitoring of wastewater for many different viruses in a proactive way. But alas, it's not like many places have lots of money to invest on public health, as we've learned over the last few years.