Vaccines helped neutralize the global threat of polio, a dreaded scourge that can cause paralysis and death, but that life-saving drug may have led unintentionally to the virus’ reappearance this year in the U.S. and other countries.
A form of the vaccine taken by mouth that uses a weakened live version of the poliovirus is believed to have spawned the virus that health officials say is spreading in two suburban New York counties and infected and partly paralyzed an unvaccinated young adult there.
“Even a single case of paralytic polio represents a public health emergency in the United States,” the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said in a new report on the case Tuesday, noting that it is only the second U.S. case of community transmission of the virus since 1979. “This case highlights the risk for paralytic disease among unvaccinated persons.”
