Polio Virus

Q&As are a good opportunity for experts to communicate directly with readers about emerging topics in medicine. Below is a list of Q&As related to pediatrics that were published in 2022.

The CDC said Wednesday that it will expand wastewater testing for poliovirus in certain U.S. jurisdictions, including Michigan and Philadelphia.

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul recently announced a state disaster emergency due to poliovirus detected in the wastewater samples of several counties in the state, as well as New York City.

Health officials said they detected poliovirus in New York City sewage samples. It was the top infectious disease story last week.

Health officials announced Friday that poliovirus has been detected in six wastewater samples collected in New York City since June, suggesting that it is circulating locally.

Healio spoke with Alanna E. Levine, MD, a spokesperson for the AAP and pediatrician in Rockland County, about the measures being taken locally to address the threat of polio and what providers can do to protect their patients.

Poliovirus has been detected in wastewater in two neighboring New York counties, indicating local transmission, health officials said.

Wastewater surveillance has detected “several” closely related vaccine-derived polioviruses in London sewage, suggesting there has been some person-to-person spread, health officials said.

War has increased the risk for polio in Ukraine and beyond, interrupting health resources in a country with low immunization rates that has experienced recent vaccine-derived polio outbreaks, experts said at ASM Microbe.

According to an MMWR report, 37 countries reported 44 outbreaks of circulating vaccine-derived poliovirus during the COVID-19 pandemic from January 2020 through June 2021 — almost 90% of them caused by poliovirus type 2. The outbreaks resulted in 1,335 paralyzed children.