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What You Should Know

Brief description
Symptoms, treatment, transmission, etc.

Questions and Answers

Polio: Information for Parents

Polio: Unprotected Story
The true story of how the U.S. came together in an effort to create a vaccine to protect children from polio.

Pictures of Polio
Warning: Some of these photos are quite graphic.

Video clips of Polio
Warning: Some of these video images are quite graphic.

History of polio
Smithsonian Museum

Travelers information
Information and updates on risks for travelers, precautions, prevention, etc.

Global polio disease
Global eradication, STOP teams, partners, websites, etc.

A person is considered to be fully immunized if he or she has received a primary series of at least three doses of inactivated poliovirus vaccine (IPV), live oral poliovirus vaccine (OPV), or four doses of any combination of IPV and OPV. Until recently, the benefits of OPV use (i.e. intestinal immunity, secondary spread) outweighed the risk for vaccine-associated paralytic poliomyelitis (VAPP) which occurred in one child out of every 2.4 million OPV doses distributed. To eliminate the risk of vaccine-associated paralytic poliomyelitis (VAPP), as of January 1, 2000, OPV was no longer recommended for routine immunization in the United States. However, OPV continues to be used in the countries where polio is endemic or the risk of importation and transmission is high. OPV is recommended for global polio eradication activities in polio-endemic countries due to its advantages over IPV in providing intestinal immunity and providing secondary spread of the vaccine to unprotected contacts.

Who needs this vaccine and when?

Side Effects
Excerpt from Vaccine Information Statement

A Polio-Free US Thanks to Vaccine Efforts 
The United States has been polio-free since 1979. But poliovirus is still a threat in some countries.

Vaccine Information Statement (VIS)

Questions and Answers

School Vaccine Requirements

Polio vaccine for travelers who are going to certain countries

Polio Vaccine Timeline
Source: History of Vaccines

Debunked: The Polio Vaccine and HIV Link
Source: History of Vaccines

Travel Information: Symptoms, Treatment and Prevention

As with all vaccines, there can be minor reactions, including pain and redness at the injection site, headache, fatigue or a vague feeling of discomfort.

CDC's Vaccine Safety website

concerns | report a suspected vaccine reaction

Are vaccines safe?
FAQs on The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia website

Lessening the Pain of Vaccines
The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia

What if we stopped vaccinating for this disease?

Who should not be vaccinated with Polio vaccine?

Pregnancy guidelines

For Health Professionals

HIST 234: Epidemics in Western Society Since 1600
Lecture 24 - Poliomyelitis: Problems of Eradication

Overview:
The Global Polio Eradication Initiative, the largest public health campaign ever launched, began in 1988 with the ambition of achieving its goal by the year 2000. In the decade since this deadline was missed, the initiative has suffered a number of setbacks, notably in the tropical world. Four major types of problems have impeded the eradication effort: operational, biological, political and religious. Northern Nigeria offers a case study of all of these factors, with domestic political and religious conflict, unsanitary conditions, and suspicion of Western medicine all undermining the anti-polio campaign. One of the questions raised by the campaign's struggle is whether or not eradication is itself a realistic public health goal, and to what extent smallpox furnishes a model precedent or a potentially misleading dream scenario.