Emergeny Declared IN NEW YORK, POLIO!

 

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I could have made this posting shorter but I felt we need to know everything on this page. Give it five minutes. Adam 

NY declares ‘State disaster emergency

On September 9, 2022, the Governor of the State of New York, Kathy Hochul, declared “a State disaster emergency for the entire State of New York through October 9, 2022” in relation to instances of poliovirus.

The official declaration notes that this is not just because the virus has re-emerged, but also because of an all-time low vaccination rate against polio in this U.S. state.

“[V]accination rates against polio among 2-year old children in New York is 78.96%, and is significantly less than that in several counties and zip codes,” the declaration reads.

Is polio occurring in other countries?

On August 10, 2022, the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) issued a statement offering all children between the ages of 1 and 9 in London a dose of polio vaccine.

This follows an earlier report of type 2 vaccine-derived poliovirus found in sewage samples from north and east London.

The UKHSA is reportedly working with health officials in New York and Israel, as well as the World Health Organization (WHO), to investigate any relationship between these recent polio detections.

Earlier this year, officials in Israel discovered cases of polio in Jerusalem and other cities.

With these recent findings, many people may worry about a polio outbreak in the U.S. Can you get polio if you are vaccinated? And how can people protect themselves from infection?

Medical News Today recently spoke with medical experts, as well as the NYSDOH, to get some answers to these questions.

Should we worry about a polio outbreak in the U.S.?

Dr. Marny Eulberg is a family physician and Post-Polio Health International board member. A polio survivor, since 1985 Dr. Eulberg has run a polio clinic, seeing over 1,500 polio survivors. She told MNT that polio anywhere in the world is a potential threat to anyone who has not been fully vaccinated against it.

“The case in New York demonstrates that with our mobile societies polio can be imported into parts of the world that have not seen polio for decades,” she explained.

“Based on earlier polio outbreaks, New Yorkers should know that for every one case of paralytic polio observed, there may be hundreds of other people infected,” New York State Health Commissioner Dr. Mary T. Bassett states.

“Coupled with the latest wastewater findings, the Department is treating the single case of polio as just the tip of the iceberg of much greater potential spread,” she adds.

“As we learn more, what we do know is clear: The danger of polio is present in New York today,” Dr. Bassett continues. “We must meet this moment by ensuring that adults, including pregnant people, and young children by 2 months of age are up to date with their immunizationTrusted Source — the safe protection against this debilitating virus that every New Yorker needs.”

“We are now seeing polio outbreaks in specific communities and among certain individuals who, for some reason or other, are not vaccinated against polio,” said Dr. Waleed Javaid, hospital epidemiologist and director of infection prevention and control at Mount Sinai New York. “Those individuals and communities are at a higher risk of contracting the disease.”

“We are seeing this now because not everyone is vaccinated against polio,” Dr. Eulberg added.

“In this case, the community where this man lived has low vaccination rates against polio, but also against measles — they had a fairly large measles outbreakTrusted Source within the last 5 years. As we have seen with the COVID pandemic, there are many people who are opposed to vaccinations for a variety of reasons. Many younger people have not known anyone who had polio and feels that it is no longer a threat to them or their families and therefore they don’t need to be vaccinated against it.”

– Dr. Marny Eulberg

Can you get polio if you are vaccinated?

According to the CDC, two doses of IPV — the only polio vaccine available in the U.S. since 2000 — offer 90% immunity to all three types of the polio virus, while three doses give a person 99% protection Trusted Source.

“It is unlikely for a vaccinated person to get polio,” Dr. Javaid told MNT.

Dr. Eulberg agreed, stating the polio vaccines are very, very effective in preventing disease. She said you cannot get polio from IPV.

“But when we were using the live, oral attenuated poliovirus vaccine in the U.S., we learned that for every million doses that were given, about one person might develop acute polio paralysis,” she explained.

“This was/ is termed ‘vaccine-associated’ polio. The individuals most at risk of developing polio after getting the oral vaccine were individuals with immune deficiencies or adults who had not been immunized and changed the diapers of young family members who had received the oral vaccine in the prior month or two,” she further specified.

Dr. Eulberg explained that polio is primarily transmitted by the fecal-oral route similar to that of hepatitis A. “In the instance of an infant developing polio after receiving the oral vaccine, it might have been the first indication that they indeed had an immune deficiency,” she added.

 

How is polio treated?

According to Dr. Javaid, the treatment of polio is supportive. “Treatment specially addresses symptoms and signs of polio, like fever, and also physical therapy for weakness or paralysis,” he detailed. “There are no FDA/ internationally-approved antivirals against polio at this time.”

Dr. Eulberg said that some symptomatic treatments for polio include using heat — such as the Sister Kenny hot packsTrusted Source — to ease muscle spasms, range of motion exercises to minimize contractures and deformity, and rehabilitation techniques to help the person regain as much function as possible.

An NYSDOH spokesperson told MNT that if New Yorkers experience any symptomsTrusted Sources consistent with polio, they should contact a healthcare provider right away.

“NYSDOH also continues to proactively communicate with healthcare providers to be alert for any patients who may present with symptoms, and about testing for enterovirus, which would help determine whether an individual should be tested for polio,” the spokesperson added.

Dr. Eulberg said that one of her concerns is that today’s physicians may not recognize and accurately diagnose polio.

“I have heard that the man in New York was diagnosed with acute flaccid myelitis until the results of the viral studies done on a stool specimen came back positive for vaccine-derived poliovirus type 2,” she explained.

“Treatment today would not be very different than that used during the polio epidemics of the 1940s and 1950s, except respiratory problems caused by polio would be treated with our newer ventilators and not an ‘iron lungTrusted Source‘,” Dr. Eulberg pointed out.

Should we worry about poliovirus in wastewater?

On August 12, New York health officials announced that poliovirus has been detected in New York City’s wastewater, indicating there may be a community spread among the unvaccinated.

“​​For every one case of paralytic polio identified, hundreds more may be undetected. The detection of poliovirus in wastewater samples in New York City is alarming, but not surprising,” New York State Health Commissioner Dr. Mary T. Bassett in a statement.

“Detecting poliovirus in the wastewater is like detecting COVID virus particles in the wastewater — it indicates that some persons in that area are shedding live poliovirus and are potentially contagious to those who have not developed immunity to polio, i.e. the unvaccinated or inadequately vaccinated,” Dr. Eulberg explained.

Dr. Javaid agreed and stated that detection of poliovirus in wastewater is a measure of disease activity” “Polio has been eradicated in most countries, but unfortunately — in some parts of the world — it still exists. The bigger issue is the need for worldwide efforts and mobilization to help lesser developed countries with some lingering infections to broadly eliminate polio risk.”

How might the polio virus in wastewater affect the general population?

“To be clear, wastewater is not a concern in terms of having the ability to infect the general public as the general public does not interact with wastewater, which is based on samples from our sewage system via feces that have been excreted,” the NYSDOH spokesperson told MNT.

“It does not contaminate our drinking water or other sources of water that the public would interact with,” they explained.

“In areas where the wastewater is thoroughly treated before being released back into the environment and there are good water purification practices there is very, very, very little risk to the general population, but could be a risk for personnel working in wastewater facilities,” Dr. Eulberg said.

What can people do to prevent polio?

Dr. Javaid had a one-word answer to this question — vaccination.

“Vaccination is key,” he emphasized. “Vaccination is a great tool to help mitigate polio risk and subsequent impacts on our environment.”

Dr. Eulberg agreed. “We have no antiviral medication trusted Source that can treat polio once a person has it, so prevention through vaccination is especially important,” she said.

“Get vaccinated if [you are] not — especially if living in areas where polio still exists or when traveling to areas where polio, either wild poliovirus or circulating vaccine-derived poliovirus, is circulating.”

– Dr. Marny Eulberg

“Secondly, follow all the travel-related instructionsTrusted Source about what to do to avoid getting diarrheal diseases in foreign countries,” Dr. Eulberg added. “These same precautions will prevent most diseases that are transmitted by the fecal-oral route.”

In addition to vaccination, the NYSDOH also notes that “access to clean water, good hand hygiene habits, modern sewage systems, and wastewater management further prevent germs, including viruses like poliovirus, from spreading.”

Public HealthInfectious Diseases / Bacteria / VirusesEnvironment / Water / Pollution

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By Corrie Pelc on September 12, 2022 — Fact checked by Alexandra Sanfins, Ph.D.

What have vaccines done for us?

As the world awaits the imminent arrival of one — or several — COVID-19 vaccines, many people may wonder how important vaccines actually are to safeguarding public health. In this feature, we answer that question by looking at what vaccines have done for us throughout history.

 

This photograph shows a doctor using a jet injector gun during mass smallpox immunization procedures in 1972.

 

Researchers who have looked at trends of vaccine acceptance around the world have found that, overall, people’s trust in vaccine safety and effectiveness has been on the rise over the past few years.

However, they have also expressed concern that the race for a COVID-19 vaccine may have triggered more hesitancy among certain groups.

Speaking at this year’s WIRED Health: Tech conference, Prof. Heidi Larson, from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, in the United Kingdom, noted that “Because of the hyper-uncertainty and the whole environment of trust and distrust around the COVID vaccine, there are groups that have gotten together to resist” upcoming vaccination.

Many may now be wondering why researchers are so keen on vaccines — and whether vaccines have really achieved much for public health.

So, in this Special Feature, we look at some key moments in vaccine history and how vaccines have revolutionized public healthcare. 

The ancient practice of ‘variolation’

Vaccines work by exposing the immune system to a very small amount of a virus or “information” about a virus — enough to “teach” it to recognize and react to that pathogen.

The idea of exposing the body to a virus in a controlled way to “train” it to prevent infection is by no means a modern conception.

Already in the 1500s, Chinese and Indian physicians practiced inoculation against the variola virus, which causes smallpox.

Some accounts from China in the 1600s suggest that doctors attempted inoculation by grinding up smallpox scabs and blowing them into the patient’s nose through a silver tube.

In Europe, inoculation against smallpox, a process known as “variolation,” was introduced and popularized by Lady Mary Wortley Montagu in the early 18th century.

Lady Wortley Montagu was the wife of the British ambassador to the Ottoman Empire. From 1716–1718 she traveled across Europe to Constantinople, present-day İstanbul, where she learned about variolation.

She was so impressed by the evidence of its effectiveness that she submitted her own son for inoculation against the smallpox virus while in Constantinople and continued to advocate for the procedure on her return to Britain.

In a letter to a friend, Lady Wortley Montagu praised the procedure:

“Smallpox, so fatal, and so general amongst us, is here entirely harmless by the invention of ingrafting, which is the term [that the Ottomans] give it. There is a set of old women who make it their business to perform the operation every autumn. […] Every year, thousands undergo this operation… There is no example of anyone that has died in it, and you may believe I am well satisfied with the safety of the experiment.”

The eradication of smallpox

The word “vaccine” entered circulation soon after when British physician Edward Jenner started experimenting with different ways of inoculating against variola.

In 1796Trusted Source, Jenner discovered that exposing people to small quantities of the cowpox virus, called “vaccinia” or the “vaccine virus,” was safer than exposing them to the variola virus that infects humans. The cowpox virus was also effective in preventing smallpox.

Thus, inoculation against the “vaccine virus” eventually became the umbrella term that we use today: vaccination.

This discovery was truly revolutionary for public healthcare worldwide, given the disastrous effects that smallpox had been having for centuries.

The World Health Organization (WHO) call smallpox “one of the most devastating diseases known to humanity,” as it caused millions of deaths worldwide over some 3,000 yearsTrusted Source.

Smallpox was officially eradicated in 1980Trusted Source, thanks to consistent global programs of vaccination. On May 8 of that year, the 33rd World Health Assembly made the historical announcement: “The world and all its peoples have won freedom from smallpox.”

According to the WHO, in the 20th century alone, smallpox ended the lives of around 300 million people.

MMR vaccine prevents millions of cases

The WHO and national health authorities everywhere have also made strides toward ending the threat of other contagious diseases, many of which often spread fast among children.

Measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) are three of the most contagious diseases among humans and are capable of causing epidemics if left unchecked.

While it is unclear when, exactly, the measles virus started spreading, researchers believe that it has been around for hundreds of years, causing hundreds of thousands of infections and thousands of deaths, up until the 20th century.

The first vaccine for measles was only introduced in 1963Trusted Source, and an improved version became available in 1968.

According to the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control, thanks to the measles vaccine, the number of related deaths worldwide decreased by 73% between 2000 and 2018. The vaccine prevented an estimated 23 million deaths during this period.

The first vaccine for mumps appeared in 1948Trusted Source, though it only produced short-lived immunity against the virus. An improved vaccine appeared in 1967, and it is still used today.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), “Mumps was a frequent cause of outbreaks among military personnel in the prevaccine era, and [mumps] was one of the most common causes of aseptic meningitis and sensorineural deafness [deafness caused by damage to the auditory nerve] in childhood.”

In the United States alone, at least 186,000Trusted Source cases of mumps appeared each year before the start of a national vaccination program in 1967.

“Since the [two-dose MMR] vaccination program was introduced in 1989, U.S. mumps cases decreased more than 99%, with only a few hundred cases reported most years,” the CDC report.

The first rubella vaccine appeared in 1969, and it was developed by the same researcher who had improved on the measles and mumps vaccines: the American microbiologist Maurice Hilleman. A safer, more effective rubella vaccine became available in 1979.

Thanks to consistent national vaccination programs, rubella and congenital rubella syndrome were eliminated in the Americas in 2016Trusted Source.

The U.K. has also eradicated rubella, in 2015, and measles, in 2016. Other countries are still working to eliminate these viruses.

At present, children can receive the MMR vaccine, which protects against all three of these viral illnesses. Healthcare providers administer it in two dosesTrusted Source, one at 12–15 months of age and another at 4–6 years.

Vaccines’ incredible impact

Another vaccine that has made a monumental difference from trusted Source of world health is the DTP, or DTaP, vaccine. It protects against diphtheria, tetanus, and pertussis — whooping cough — and children receive the vaccine in five doses.

DiphtheriaTrusted Source can cause breathing difficulties, heart failure, and paralysis, leading to death in some cases.

A vaccine for diphtheria first became available in the 1920s, after the illness had caused millions of deaths among children. In 1921 alone, Corynebacterium diphtheriae, the bacterium behind the disease, reportedly caused 206,000 cases of diphtheria and 15,520 related deaths.

Thanks to widespread vaccination, however, global cases have dropped to a minimum, and diphtheria has become “nearly unheard of” in the U.S., according to the CDCTrusted Source.

TetanusTrusted Source, also known as lockjaw, commonly produces spasms and tightening of the jaw muscles, which can lead to further health problems.

Since the popularization of childhood immunization against tetanus in the 1940sTrusted Source, cases have been decreasing at a steady rate, the CDC observes.

“The death-to-case ratio has declined from 30% to approximately 10% in recent years,” the CDC report, adding that “An all-time low of 18 cases (0.01 cases per 100,000) was reported in 2009.”

Whooping cough trusted Source is caused by the bacterium Bordetella pertussis, and it can cause severe symptoms in people of all ages. The main symptom is coughing fits that can cause breathing problems.

The disease has been around at least since the 16th centuryTrusted Source, and in the U.S., more than 200,000 cases appeared annually before the introduction of widespread immunization in the 1940s.

Since then, thanks to vaccinations, the incidence has reportedly decreased by more than 80%.

Finally, the “humble” flu shot has been preventing hundreds of cases of severe illness year after year. According to the most recent data from the CDC, flu vaccines “prevented an estimated 58,000Trusted Source flu-related hospitalizations” in the U.S. in 2018–2019.

Flu jabs have also prevented severe symptoms and events in people with existing chronic conditions, such as heart disease and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, known as COPD.

According to the WHO, “We now have vaccines to prevent more than 20Trusted Source life-threatening diseases” to help safeguard every human being’s right to health.

Researchers are constantly working to increase that number, so that one day, everyone has the best chance of staying healthy for longer.