What is Polio?
Polomyelitis (polio) is a highly infectious
disease that is caused when a person is infected by the polio virus that invades the nervous system. Poliomyelitis can cause paralysis and even death. Polio vaccines are vaccines used to prevent poliomyelitis. The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends all children be fully vaccinated with polio.
How Polio is Spread?
- Lack of good hand washing practices
- Contact with tiny amounts of feces (poop) of an infected person
- Drinking water or eating food contaminated with infected feces
Signs & Symptoms of Polio
- most people with polio do not feel sick
- some people have only minor symptoms such as fever, tiredness, nausea, headache, nasal congestion, sore throat, cough, stiffness in the neck and back, and pain in the arms and legs
- in rare case, polio infection causes permanent loss of muscle function (paralysis)
- polio can be fatal if the muscles used for breathing are paralyzed or if there is an infection of the brain
Alert - Level 2 | Practiced Enhanced Precautions
We are traveling to Indonesia for leisure in December. According to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (
CDC), there is a polio outbreak reported in Papua Province, Indonesia. CDC recommends that all people visiting Indonesia be fully vaccinated against polio. The current outbreak is caused by vaccine-derived poliovirus (VDPV), a sign of low oral polio vaccine coverage in the country.
What is Vaccine-Derived Polio?
Polio caused by a vaccine strain is called vaccine-derived polio. The oral polio vaccine (made from a weakened strain of the poliovirus) is given as drops in the mouth to protect against polio. This vaccine has been extremely effective in wiping out polio in developing countries, when most of the population get vaccinated.
How Vaccine-Derived Polio is Spread?
In areas where there are low rates of vaccination against polio and sanitation is poor, the weakened vaccine virus can spread from person to person. Over time, as the virus spreads, it can regain its ability to cause disease in people who are not vaccinated.
Before traveling to Indonesia, adults who completed their routine polio vaccine series as children should receive a single, lifetime adult booster dose of polio vaccine. Although we are not staying there for more than 4 weeks, we opted to get vaccinated to be on the safe side.
