Massachusetts Citizens for Vaccination Choice

The polio vaccine is credited with eradicating poliomyelitis from the Americas and much of the rest of the world. But since 1979, the great preponderance of positive cases of polio in the western hemisphere--approximately 121 of 125--were directly linked to the live (oral) virus vaccine being used. In 1996, this fact moved the Centers for Disease Control to recommend the use of a killed (injected) virus polio vaccine, which is currently in use.

Poliomyelitis is caused by several different types of polioviruses that live in the nose, throat and, especially, the intestinal tract of a person infected with it. The incubation period is usually between one and two weeks. The wild (naturally-occurring as opposed to vaccine-induced polio) poliovirus produces varying symptoms and degrees of neurological signs and complications, depending upon the type of polio virus involved. According to infectious disease experts, approximately one percent of wild polio infections result in paralytic disease.

Most wild virus infections are mild and the milder forms of polio usually begin abruptly and last, at most, a few days. When symptoms are present, they include fever, sore throat, nausea, headache and stomachache. Sometimes the individual will feel pain and stiffness in the neck, back and legs. Usually there is full recovery with no muscular or nerve damage. The vast majority of children and adults who got polio in the 1950s recovered from this milder type of polio.

Visit the Centers for Disease Control polio webpage.

View the vaccine package insert (IPOL from Sanofi Pasteur).