When was the eradication of polio

Following introduction of vaccines—specifically, trivalent inactivated poliovirus vaccine IPV in and trivalent oral poliovirus vaccine OPV in —the number of polio cases fell rapidly to less than in the s and fewer than 10 in the s.

Thanks to the polio vaccine, dedicated health care professionals, and parents who vaccinate their children on schedule, polio has been eliminated in this country for more than 30 years. This means that there is no year-round transmission of poliovirus in the United States.

It takes only one traveler with polio to bring the disease into the United States. People most at risk are:. The best way to keep the United States polio-free is to maintain high immunity protection against polio in the population through vaccination. Skip directly to site content Skip directly to page options Skip directly to A-Z link. Global Immunization. Section Navigation. Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Syndicate. Polio Elimination in the United States. Minus Related Pages. Polio Once Caused Widespread Panic.

If a case is detected, immediate action must be taken to prevent further transmission. Acute flaccid paralysis AFP is a symptom that indicates the possible presence of poliovirus, yet it can also have other causes. Several importations of polioviruses into the European Region have been detected since the Region was declared polio free in Each event was detected thanks to functional national polio surveillance together with a strong network of polio surveillance laboratories in the Region, and the ensuing outbreaks were stopped.

The importation of wild virus into Tajikistan and eventual spread into 3 other countries was the largest outbreak to date in the Region since Currently, 2 countries in the Region are responding to vaccine-derived poliovirus outbreaks.

In Tajikistan, an initial case was confirmed in January , and 3 rounds of supplemental immunization campaigns have been conducted to stop its spread. In Ukraine, 1 case of polio was confirmed on 6 October , and the first of several immunization campaigns has been initiated. However, better sanitary conditions meant that exposure to polio was delayed until later in life, on average, when a child had lost maternal protection and was also more vulnerable to the most severe form of the disease.

Because of widespread vaccination, polio was eliminated from the Western Hemisphere in In , it continues to circulate in just Afghanistan and Pakistan, with occasional spread to neighboring countries.

Vigorous vaccination programs are being conducted to eliminate these last pockets. Polio vaccination is still recommended worldwide because of the risk of imported cases. In the United States, children are recommended to receive the inactivated polio vaccine at 2 months and 4 months of age, and then twice more before entering elementary school. Contagious Nature of Polio Discovered. In , Swedish physician Ivar Wickman suggested that that polio was a contagious disease that could be spread from person to person.

March of Dimes Is Born. A huge fundraising effort began in when entertainer Eddie Cantor suggested on the radio that people send dimes to the White House to help fight polio. Massive U. Polio Vaccine Trial. More than 1.