Detection of Polio Virus in US Prompts Call for Vaccination Checks From UW Health

Wednesday, September 28th, 2022 -- 10:01 AM

(Raymond Neupert, WRN) With recent detections of the polio virus in wastewater in the US, it's a good time to check to make sure you were vaccinated as a child.

There's some concern from the medical community as polio has been detected in the US. Dr. Jim Conway from UW Health says that could mean there are undetected cases of the disease in the US. He says the best defense is to make sure kids continue to get their early polio vaccines. 

"So even though we haven't had lots of cases in the United States for a while, doesn't mean, it's not something that could easily show up and get on up, you know, somebody gets on a plane. And, you know, boom, there you go."

Dr. Conway says the detection just undermines how important it is to get the polio vaccine. "I think for many years, most of us in my world, at least, have assumed that is probably out there and just hadn't been detected because nobody was looking."

Dr. Conway from UW Health says vaccinations can help prevent the return of the debilitating disease. "The vaccines we use now in the United States and have used for many years are inactivated. They're just an injection just like your flu shot or your COVID shot. So the vaccines that we're gradually transitioning to globally, are getting away from these old oral polio vaccines and getting to injectable ones."

Polio can cause very serious neurological damage and death.

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