World Polio Day is Thursday, October 24. That probably wouldn’t mean much to many readers today. You might think “Polio, there’s no more polio; it’s a thing of the past.” 

But is it? You might have recently read about polio in Gaza. Today, 34 countries have been identified in the latest polio outbreak alert. You might remember the case of polio in Rockland County, NY a few years ago, in a young man. He traveled to another country, contracted the virus there, came home, became sick and was paralyzed. 

After that, the polio virus was isolated from the sewage systems in other counties and cities in New York. Did you know that only half a percent of those who contract the poliovirus are affected—but in 1954, the year before the vaccine was available, there were 50,000 cases of paralytic polio in the United States? 

Do the math. Think about how many people actually came in contact with the virus. If you contract the virus and have no effects, you are still a carrier, and can shed the virus in your stool and saliva. One carrier has the potential to start an epidemic. 

Of course, if you were immunized against polio, you have nothing to worry about.

Today, it’s alarming to see that the vaccination rates for polio have declined substantially, because parents think that polio is a disease from the past. When this happens, the herd immunity to polio decreases, and there is the potential for the poliovirus to mutate. 

This has never happened in the U.S. If it does, people already immunized will have to be reimmunized. The mutated form can potentially cause a greater amount of paralysis than the original polioviruses (there are three), perhaps paralyzing everyone who contracts it. 

As with the young man in Rockland County, and from what we learned from COVID, people travel from other counties to the U.S. daily. Some might be carriers.

Measles, mumps, chickenpox, smallpox and a host of other diseases are gone today because of immunization. Polio not only paralyzes but kills people who contract it—adults as well as children. Almost 4,000 people died from polio in 1954, the year before the vaccine came out. 

Why take the chance? Don’t play a lottery game with your family’s health. If you haven’t already done so, get your children immunized, as well as yourself.

Michael Kossove is Professor Emeritus and an adjunct professor of microbiology at Touro University’s School of Health Sciences. He is a polio researcher, international polio lecturer and polio survivor. He can be reached at Professormike2@aol.com.