Polio in the U.S.: What You Need to Know

In mid-July 2022, the New York State Department of Healthidentified a case of polioin a person living in Rockland County who had not been vaccinated.

The 20-year-old mandeveloped paralytic polio. He likely got the virus from someone who had been vaccinated with the oral polio vaccine, which is not used in the United States anymore.

In some cases, the oral polio vaccine can lead to “vaccine-derived” polio infections because it’s made with live poliovirus (the vaccine used in the U.S. contains an inactivated virus).

On August 26, poliovirus was found in wastewaterin Sullivan County, about an hour north of Rockland County. In early September, poliovirus was found in wastewaterin Nassau County.

On September 10, the governor of New Yorkdeclared a state of emergencyin hopes of encouraging people to get vaccinated against polio.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have sent scientists to New York to investigate and offer polio vaccinations to people in the area who are unvaccinated.

What Is Polio?

The polio virus attacks the nervous system. The symptoms of polio can include headache, fever, nausea and vomiting; and pain and stiffness in the limbs. A person with a mild case of polio may recover fully from these symptoms within a few days to weeks.

A small percentage of people get life-threatening illnesses from polio. For example, polio can cause inflammation in the brain (meningitis), which can be fatal.

One of the most serious, but rare, outcomes of polio is becoming paralyzed. Paralysis can start within a few hours of when a person is infected. In some cases, it’s severe enough to affect the muscles that help with breathing and a person will die.

However, up to 90% of people who have been infected with polio have only mild symptoms or no symptoms at all. They can still spread the virus to others.

Who Gets Polio?Today, most cases of polio occur in children under the age of 5. However, any person can get polio, especially if they are not vaccinated.

Who Gets Polio?

Today, most cases of polio occur in children under the age of 5. However, any person can get polio, especially if they are not vaccinated.

Polio is also a vaccine-preventable disease. It’s included as a routine childhood immunization in most parts of the world, which has helped us get closer to eradicating it.

Is Polio a Routine Vaccination for Kids?

Didn’t We Eradicate Polio?

We have eradicated two strains of the poliovirus, but there’s still one left. Polio won’t be eradicated until we stop the spread of the third type, too.

Vaccination programs have made polio far less of a worry for many people around the world than it was throughout history. We’re in the “last leg” of the global polio eradication effort, but we’re not there yet.

Is It Possible to Eradicate Polio?Some diseases cannot be eradicated because they can survive in bothhumans and animalsand spread back and forth between them—for example, influenza viruses.However, the polio virus can only survive in humans, which means that it’s possible for us to eradicate it.So, why haven’t we? Well, polio presents a few challenges:People do not get vaccinated and do not vaccinate their children.Unvaccinated people are more at risk of getting polio and giving it to other people. They also make it easier for the poliovirus to resist eradication, since it needs to get inside a human to survive.Violence and humanitarian crises have made polio vaccines inaccessible in some countries.The Talibanbanned door-to-door polio vaccinationefforts in remote rural areas of Afghanistan in 2018 and only allowed them to resume last November.And a Taliban-linked group in northwest Pakistan hastargeted teams providing polio vaccinesin the region, reportedly killing as many as 70 of the teams’ personnel in the past decade.The virus can be hard to track.It may take weeks for an infected person to have symptoms of polio and some people never have symptoms. An infected person can keep spreading the virus directly for about 2 weeks after being infected. The virus can survive in feces for several weeks, potentially contaminating food and water.The COVID-19 pandemic.The global COVID pandemic needed to use up a lot of public health resources around the world, which meant that other infectious disease goals had to be put on hold.

Is It Possible to Eradicate Polio?

Some diseases cannot be eradicated because they can survive in bothhumans and animalsand spread back and forth between them—for example, influenza viruses.However, the polio virus can only survive in humans, which means that it’s possible for us to eradicate it.So, why haven’t we? Well, polio presents a few challenges:People do not get vaccinated and do not vaccinate their children.Unvaccinated people are more at risk of getting polio and giving it to other people. They also make it easier for the poliovirus to resist eradication, since it needs to get inside a human to survive.Violence and humanitarian crises have made polio vaccines inaccessible in some countries.The Talibanbanned door-to-door polio vaccinationefforts in remote rural areas of Afghanistan in 2018 and only allowed them to resume last November.And a Taliban-linked group in northwest Pakistan hastargeted teams providing polio vaccinesin the region, reportedly killing as many as 70 of the teams’ personnel in the past decade.The virus can be hard to track.It may take weeks for an infected person to have symptoms of polio and some people never have symptoms. An infected person can keep spreading the virus directly for about 2 weeks after being infected. The virus can survive in feces for several weeks, potentially contaminating food and water.The COVID-19 pandemic.The global COVID pandemic needed to use up a lot of public health resources around the world, which meant that other infectious disease goals had to be put on hold.

Some diseases cannot be eradicated because they can survive in bothhumans and animalsand spread back and forth between them—for example, influenza viruses.

However, the polio virus can only survive in humans, which means that it’s possible for us to eradicate it.

So, why haven’t we? Well, polio presents a few challenges:

The only countries where polio still circulates (is endemic) are Afghanistan and Pakistan, but cases also pop up throughout Africa.

Elimination vs. EradicationPolio has beeneliminatedin the U.S. for more than 30 years thanks to a safe and effective vaccine.However, polio will not beeradicateduntil the last wild poliovirus is no longer a threatin the worldand we no longer need prevention strategies like vaccines.

Elimination vs. Eradication

Polio has beeneliminatedin the U.S. for more than 30 years thanks to a safe and effective vaccine.However, polio will not beeradicateduntil the last wild poliovirus is no longer a threatin the worldand we no longer need prevention strategies like vaccines.

Polio has beeneliminatedin the U.S. for more than 30 years thanks to a safe and effective vaccine.

However, polio will not beeradicateduntil the last wild poliovirus is no longer a threatin the worldand we no longer need prevention strategies like vaccines.

Sometimes, when public health departments do surveillance on wastewater, they find evidence of infectious diseases—including the polio virus.

For example, the polio virus was found inwastewater samples in the U.K.earlier this summer. TheU.K. government reminded citizensthat it’s important to make sure that they, and their children, are up to date on their vaccines.

How Well Do Polio Vaccines Work?

Do I Need a Polio Booster?

As long as you were vaccinated against polio as a child, you probably don’t need a booster. If you or your child have not been vaccinated or you missed a dose, the CDC recommends that you get caught up.

The CDC only recommends a polio vaccine booster for people who are at high risk for catching the virus—for example, people working in labs where the virus is being researched.

Elsewhere in the world, governments might take a different approach. For example, after poliovirus was found in sewage samples in July, public health authorities in the UK decided tooffer children in London a polio booster shot.

Which Vaccines Have Booster Shots?

Could Polio Be Like COVID or Monkeypox?

COVID Cases in the United States

There are a few reasons that polio isn’t likely to become a situation like the COVID pandemic or the monkeypox outbreak:

There are safe and effective vaccines for COVID, polio, andmonkeypox. However, that does not mean that everyone will get vaccinated or vaccinate their kids. In the case of COVID, even getting people vaccinated hasn’t meant the virus is under control. We’re still trying to “catch up” with the virus as it evolves and make vaccines andboosters that will be effective against variants.

10 SourcesVerywell Health uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read oureditorial processto learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.What is polio?.World Health Organization.Poliomyelitis (polio): symptoms.World Health Organization.Poliomyelitis (polio).World Health Organization.Poliomyelitis.Global Polio Eradication Initiative.The vaccines.UNICEF.Eradicating polio.Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.Epidemiology and prevention of vaccine-preventable diseases. Poliomyelitis.Tharwani ZH, Shaeen SK, Arshad MS, et al.Polio amid a humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan: challenges and recommendations.Lancet Infect Dis. 2022;22(2):168-169. doi:10.1016/S1473-3099(22)00004-4Council on Foreign Relations.Why hasn’t the world eradicated polio?.Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).Polio vaccination.

10 Sources

Verywell Health uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read oureditorial processto learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.What is polio?.World Health Organization.Poliomyelitis (polio): symptoms.World Health Organization.Poliomyelitis (polio).World Health Organization.Poliomyelitis.Global Polio Eradication Initiative.The vaccines.UNICEF.Eradicating polio.Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.Epidemiology and prevention of vaccine-preventable diseases. Poliomyelitis.Tharwani ZH, Shaeen SK, Arshad MS, et al.Polio amid a humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan: challenges and recommendations.Lancet Infect Dis. 2022;22(2):168-169. doi:10.1016/S1473-3099(22)00004-4Council on Foreign Relations.Why hasn’t the world eradicated polio?.Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).Polio vaccination.

Verywell Health uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read oureditorial processto learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.What is polio?.World Health Organization.Poliomyelitis (polio): symptoms.World Health Organization.Poliomyelitis (polio).World Health Organization.Poliomyelitis.Global Polio Eradication Initiative.The vaccines.UNICEF.Eradicating polio.Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.Epidemiology and prevention of vaccine-preventable diseases. Poliomyelitis.Tharwani ZH, Shaeen SK, Arshad MS, et al.Polio amid a humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan: challenges and recommendations.Lancet Infect Dis. 2022;22(2):168-169. doi:10.1016/S1473-3099(22)00004-4Council on Foreign Relations.Why hasn’t the world eradicated polio?.Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).Polio vaccination.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.What is polio?.

World Health Organization.Poliomyelitis (polio): symptoms.

World Health Organization.Poliomyelitis (polio).

World Health Organization.Poliomyelitis.

Global Polio Eradication Initiative.The vaccines.

UNICEF.Eradicating polio.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.Epidemiology and prevention of vaccine-preventable diseases. Poliomyelitis.

Tharwani ZH, Shaeen SK, Arshad MS, et al.Polio amid a humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan: challenges and recommendations.Lancet Infect Dis. 2022;22(2):168-169. doi:10.1016/S1473-3099(22)00004-4

Council on Foreign Relations.Why hasn’t the world eradicated polio?.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).Polio vaccination.

Meet Our Medical Expert Board

Share Feedback

Was this page helpful?Thanks for your feedback!What is your feedback?OtherHelpfulReport an ErrorSubmit

Was this page helpful?

Thanks for your feedback!

What is your feedback?OtherHelpfulReport an ErrorSubmit

What is your feedback?