NY has declared a state of emergency due to the spread of the virus polio.
Not that there have been new cases. So far, only the case detected in the month of July is known, which was the first confirmed in the United States in more than a decade.
But the discovery of the virus in wastewater from the city has provoked this reaction.
The objective of this alert is none other than to increase immunization rates against the eradicable infection, which is spread by:
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Direct person-to-person contact
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fecal-oral transmission
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Through contaminated water or food.
Objective: increase immunization
Polio is an incurable disease that can cause muscle paralysis and even death.
And what is surprising about this case is that the United States had already been declared a polio-free country in 1979, just as Europe, including Spain, was in 2002.
What happens is that today, the vaccination rate in the state of New York is 79%. Some figures that are far, for example, from those we have in Spain.
Vaccination coverage in Spain is much higher
According to vaccination coverage data for (2020), 97.9% of babies born in our country have received the first two doses of the polio vaccine. And 94.4% of children under one year already have at least three doses.
The polio vaccine is administered in four injections.
- The first of them is received two months after birth.
- The second dose at four months.
- The penultimate between 6-18 months
- The last dose can be received between 4-6 years of age.
However, the United States has not been the only country that has detected the virus in its wastewater this summer. It has also happened in the UK, which was declared polio-free in 2003.
Does this health situation pose a risk to our country?
the epidemiologist Peter Archesa professor at the University of Oviedo, explains that
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“Detecting remains of the virus in fecal water is not extraordinary, since the poliovirus is eliminated through feces and it is quite common to find it in areas where there is a case of the disease.”
In any case, and as regards the alert that we have just received, both Spain and most of Europe have extensive vaccination coverage, so the presence of the virus in the United States or the United Kingdom “should not be a problem”.
The impact of possible transmission from the United States to Spain is completely residual because the European population is practically all protected against polio
However, other countries such as Ukraine or Afghanistan do pose a real threat to public health.
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“These are complex emergency areas, since child vaccination plans (which also include polio) have been suspended due to the war situation. And there are already cohorts of minors who have not been vaccinated against this disease.”
Therefore, “the impact of possible transmission from the United States to Spain is totally residual because the European population is practically entirely protected against polio.”
But we cannot forget that it is a “highly communicable” disease, which is why vaccination rates need to be very high.
Polio, a mainly childhood disease
It is a viral disease that affects, above all, children under 5 years of age. It is caused by the poliovirus (PV), an RNA Enterovirus with three serotypes.
Three vaccines against polio are used in Spain.
They are injected intramuscularly and can be given on the same day as other injections:
- hexavalentwhich also protects against diphtheria, tetanus, Haemophilus influenzae type b (which causes infections like pneumonia), hepatitis B, and whooping cough.
- pentavalent.
- Tdpa+IPV.
As specified by the WHO:
“Of the 3 strains of wild poliovirus (type 1, type 2 and type 3), type 2 was eradicated in 1999.
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No case of type 3 has been detected since the last reported in Nigeria in November 2012.
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The global eradication of both strains has been officially certified.
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In 2020, type 1 affects two countries: Pakistan and Afghanistan.
The virus invades the nervous system, being able to cause paralysis in a matter of hours from the contagion.
Spain, free of polio?
According to , the disease affected some 20,000 people in Spain. The highest rate of incidence it occurred in 1959, with 70.04 cases per 100,000 inhabitants.
The last autochthonous cases of polio were reported in 1987 and 1988 in unvaccinated people, in Andalusia
The latest data offered indicate that, thanks to high vaccination coverage, the incidence plummeted to 0.10 cases per 100,000 inhabitants in 1988.
Vaccination against polio began in Spain in 1963. Specifically, with a vaccinated woman called Polio Sabin, who was administered orally.
“Three drops are enough” was the motto that read on the poster of the national vaccination campaign against infection.
The last autochthonous polio cases were reported in 1987 and 1988 in unvaccinated people in Andalusia. Pakistan and Afghanistan are the only two areas where it is endemic.
The Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI) has proposed, with a new strategic plan, the eradication of poliomyelitis in these two countries for the next year.