here comes polio

HERE COMES POLIO

latimes.com
this is a photo from the 1940s or 1950s from an iron lung polio ward in california
these patients lived forever in their iron lungs
this was during the time when many of you and your grandparents and great parents were in their youth
polio was the worry every summer throughout the us
most of us knew someone who had polio and either died or had some permanent paralysis

then 
came the polio vaccine
i remember lining up at a local school to get our polio sugar cubes as a young child

recently it was felt that polio had almost been eradicated in the world
our last case in the us was one 10 years ago

well
that changed recently 
a man in new york who was unvaccinated as a child was found to be paralysed from polio

had he been vaccinated he probably would not have gotten polio

in the us we only give the inactivated polio vaccine or ipv
its been killed so it cant cause infections
however
in some parts of the world they use an oral polio that is the attenuated version of the wild type polio called opv for oral polio vaccine
it causes immunity without causing polio outbreaks
usually
but
sometimes folks get infected with this attenuated oral polio virus and get polio
some get paralysed

so in the us we only get the dead virus shot of polio or ipv
it cannot and does not cause infection

so 
back to this young man who got polio
his was the attenuated poliovirus
its felt he probably got it from someone from another country that received the attenuated polio vaccine or the oral polio vaccine 

had he been vaxxed he would not be paralysed

also 
polio has now been found in the sewage of two areas in new york
its felt hundreds if not thousands are infected with this polio virus in that area
luckily 
most will do ok and recover without too much residual effects
but 
sadly 
not this young man

we have been able to eradicate smallpox from the world
we were close to eradicating polio but we arent there yet
the world needs to change to the dead virus polio shot called ipv that all our kids here in the us get
then
maybe we can get close to eradicating the wild type form the world and this attenuated virus wont be an issue

around 7% of kids arent vaxxinated against polio in the us
in some areas that number is higher
the antivax movement that killed so many folks from covid in the last two years may encourage more folks not to get their gets vaxxed

there is some vulnerability to those who are immunocompromised also

so
we need to worry still about covid
now its also monkey pox
and
for some we may have to add polio to that list

we shouldnt even be here on any of these 3 diseases

the organicgreen doctor