Departmentof Health Sciences, University of Genoa, Genoa, Italy; ScientificAdvisor of UNESCO CHAIR "Anthropology of Health - Biosphere and Healing System", Italy.
University Museum System of Siena (Simus), History of Medicine, University of Siena, Siena, Italy.
Vaccine. 2023 Aug 14;41(36):5338-5341. doi: 10.1016/j.vaccine.2023.07.029. Epub 2023 Jul 24.
In the summer of 2022, a vaccination campaign for the prevention of poliomyelitis was launched and "The CDC recommend that all children be vaccinated against polio, or poliomyelitis". The scientific community is on the alert for new cases of polio, which is spreading. Although polio seemed to have been almost completely eradicated throughout the world, the disease has surprisingly reappeared in some Western countries. The risk of international spread of poliovirus remains a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC).
The authors reviewed recent polio cases in some western countries which have caused significant public health concern and they underline the meaning and weight of this issue emphasizing the importance of vaccination.
In June 2022, the British authorities announced that they had detected traces of a form of polio derived from a vaccine strain in the wastewater of some London boroughs. Although no cases of disease were identified, the British government immediately announced that it was proceeding to reinstate polio vaccination for all children. A few weeks later, on July 18, 2022, the New Jersey Department of Health notified the CDCP of the detection of type-2 poliovirus in an unvaccinated young man in the New York metropolitan area. This case immediately triggered an appeal from the CDCP to get vaccinated and, above all, to vaccinate children. Low vaccination coverage means that the population is constantly at risk of further cases of paralytic poliomyelitis.
The appeal to vaccinate children against polio is crucial, as prevention through vaccination is the only defense against the disease. We think that an efficient vaccination campaign can positively influence the process of eliminating the virus. At the same time, however, it demonstrates that simply lowering one's guard can quickly lead to a resurgence of polio cases. Hence, until polio is eradicated, we can be sure that contagion by the wild virus and the risk of vaccine-derived poliovirus will remain possible.
2022 年夏天，开展了预防脊髓灰质炎的疫苗接种活动，“疾病预防控制中心建议所有儿童接种脊髓灰质炎疫苗”。科学界对脊髓灰质炎的新病例保持警惕，这种疾病正在传播。尽管脊髓灰质炎在全球范围内似乎已几乎被完全根除，但该疾病令人惊讶地在一些西方国家再次出现。脊髓灰质炎病毒的国际传播风险仍然是国际关注的突发公共卫生事件（PHEIC）。
作者回顾了一些西方国家最近发生的引起重大公共卫生关注的脊髓灰质炎病例，并强调了这一问题的意义和重要性，强调了接种疫苗的重要性。
2022 年 6 月，英国当局宣布，他们在伦敦一些自治市的废水中检测到一种源自疫苗株的脊髓灰质炎痕迹。尽管没有发现疾病病例，但英国政府立即宣布，将恢复为所有儿童接种脊髓灰质炎疫苗。几周后，即 2022 年 7 月 18 日，新泽西州卫生部门通知疾病预防控制中心，在纽约大都市区的一名未接种疫苗的年轻人中发现了 2 型脊髓灰质炎病毒。这一病例立即引发了疾病预防控制中心的接种呼吁，尤其是为儿童接种疫苗。低疫苗接种率意味着人群不断面临进一步发生麻痹性脊髓灰质炎的风险。
呼吁为儿童接种脊髓灰质炎疫苗至关重要，因为通过疫苗接种预防是预防该疾病的唯一手段。我们认为，有效的疫苗接种运动可以对消除病毒的过程产生积极影响。然而，与此同时，这表明仅仅放松警惕就会迅速导致脊髓灰质炎病例再次出现。因此，在脊髓灰质炎被根除之前，我们可以肯定，野病毒的传播和疫苗衍生的脊髓灰质炎病毒的风险仍然是可能的。
