The latest U.S. polio case sounds like a warning, says Peter Salk, son of polio vaccine developer

A man in Rockland County, New York, has become the most The first patient to contract polio, experts such as Dr Peter Salk, whose late father Jonas developed a vaccine against the disease, said the public should not panic, but warned children were not vaccinated against polio May be risky.

“Polio is just a plane ride away,” Dr. Salk said in a phone interview Friday. “Here’s a case that proves it.”

Dr. Jonas Salk and his research team unveiled Over 60 Years 1955 , an effective version of the polio vaccine from the University of Pittsburgh has been nearly eradicated in the United States. 92% of the U.S. population has been vaccinated against the virus.

The Jonas Salk Legacy Foundation in La Jolla, California is a visiting professor at Pitt University and he Said the virus still poses a threat to the populations of other countries. When U.S. citizens travel abroad without the polio vaccine, there is always the threat of them taking the virus home.

According to New York State health officials, the Rockland County case occurred in a man in his 20s who was a A member of the ultra-Orthodox Jewish community, a population official noted, he is unlikely to vaccinate children. In this case, health officials did not say whether the man had been vaccinated against polio, but he may have contracted it abroad during trips to Poland and Hungary.

The last naturally occurring case of polio in the United States was in 1979. There have been only a handful of cases since then, although those cases were brought into the U.S. by unvaccinated travelers who had contact with vaccinated people. Oral vaccine.

Rockland County man most likely to have been exposed to someone who received the oral vaccine in another country, according to Dr. Salk . Recipients of the oral polio vaccine can use a live but weakened version of the polio virus, which makes it easier to spread the virus to unvaccinated people.

In the US, children are vaccinated against a dead virus – this is Dr. Jonas Salk Direct result of revolutionary research conducted in Pittsburgh.

PhD. Salk said on Friday that polio is incurable and highly contagious, causing paralysis in about 1 in 200 cases. However, he stressed that as long as parents continue to vaccinate their children, they will be protected from the virus and there is “little hope” that another case will emerge in the United States.

PhD. Salk warned that populations around the world are increasingly at risk. However, vaccine disinformation has increased during the COVID-19 pandemic, and the confusing nature of distance learning has led some parents to forego vaccinating their children—children who don’t go to the classroom and therefore don’t need to be vaccinated through some kindergarten programs.

PhD. In England, for example, last month polio was reported for the first time in 40 years after it was spread through sewage in London, Salk noted. Like the US, most UK residents are vaccinated against the disease, although the country’s health authorities have warned anyone unvaccinated to schedule an appointment quickly.

“I think the unknown is part of the problem here,” Dr. Salk said. “People are so unfamiliar with things and concepts that they can easily fall prey to ideas spread by the nature of vaccines.”

About Around 2015, long before COVID-19 shocked the world and understanding of public health, Dr. Salk was invited to develop a vaccine and immunization school curriculum for young people, exposing them to these concepts early in their development.

The goal, he said, is that “soon, (students) will be in place and parents will have to make decisions for their families, That’s to get a sense of what’s really going on here.”

“It’s a wake-up call, saying ‘Hey, man Wake up here’,” Dr. Salk said of the Rockland County case. “Whether it’s one case, or more results, we just need to maintain awareness of the fact that the world is not an isolated place.”