Canadian infection experts are taking note after U.S. officials reported last week that an unvaccinated American was diagnosed with the country's first case of polio in nearly a decade.
Health Canada has not recorded a case of the virus in more than 25 years, but infectious disease experts say they always have their “ears up and eyes open for vaccine-preventable illnesses like polio” that continue to circulate elsewhere in the world.
That's creating a renewed risk of vaccine-preventable diseases as people return to international travel after a two-year break, she said. Global polio vaccination efforts were put on hold for part of that time, compounding the problem. Poliovirus is highly contagious and usually causes no symptoms or mild symptoms such as low-grade fever, malaise, nausea, diarrhea and sore throat. Illnesses are most common in infants and young children, but adults who are not fully immunized can also become sick. The virus attacks the nervous system, with one to five per cent of infections causing meningitis and less than one per cent resulting in paralysis.
Canada's routine childhood vaccine schedules include injectable polio vaccines before the age of two years and a booster at four to six years. The injectable form of the vaccine is inactivated and does not transmit the virus person-to-person.
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