MedPage Today August 15, 2022
— Broader wastewater surveillance and targeted immunization are critical
With the recent report of detection of poliovirus in wastewater samples from the New York City metropolitan area, many people want to understand what is happening, why it is happening, and what it means. However, in order to fully understand what is occurring it is necessary to understand some salient aspects of the history of polio and polio vaccination.
Polio is a fecal-oral spread virus that once was ubiquitous. While the thought of polio may conjure images of iron lungs and leg braces, most individuals infected with the virus never develop any symptoms — it is estimated that roughly one in every 200 infections led to the dreadful paralytic complications that...