Polio News and Research

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Poliomyelitis (polio) is a highly infectious disease caused by a virus that invades the nervous system and can cause severe paralysis. The virus enters the body through the mouth and multiplies in the intestine. Initial symptoms are fever, fatigue, headache, vomiting, stiffness in the neck, and pain in the limbs. One in 200 infections leads to irreversible paralysis (usually in the legs). Among those paralyzed, 5-10% die when their breathing muscles become immobilized. Polio mainly affects children under five years of age. Naturally occurring polio was eliminated in the U.S. in 1979 and in the Western Hemisphere by 1991; however, worldwide efforts are continuing towards eradication of this contagious and devastating disease.

Vaccination coverage drops in U.S. schools, raising concerns of outbreaks

Research highlights the decline in national coverage of state-required vaccines among kindergarten students during the 2020-2021 and 2021-2022 school years. Despite a low exemption rate, vaccination coverage decreased further in the latter year, indicating ongoing COVID-19 disruptions and emphasizing the need for increased follow-up with under-vaccinated students to protect against vaccine-preventable diseases.

22 May 2023

A mobile vaccine printer could enable rapid vaccination of large numbers of people

Getting vaccines to people who need them isn't always easy. Many vaccines require cold storage, making it difficult to ship them to remote areas that don't have the necessary infrastructure.

24 Apr 2023

Salk study opens an entirely new way of thinking about cognitive decline

Brains are like puzzles, requiring many nested and codependent pieces to function well. The brain is divided into areas, each containing many millions of neurons connected across thousands of synapses.

12 Apr 2023

Vaccination rate remains unchanged but misinformation about flu and Covid-19 stays

Although the public had been alerted that this winter could be a potentially bad flu season, barely half of Americans said in January that they had received a flu shot, a vaccination level unchanged in a representative national panel from the comparable period last year, according to a new Annenberg Science Knowledge (ASK) survey by the Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania.

17 Feb 2023

Detection of wild poliovirus type 3 in the Netherlands

Researchers detect wild poliovirus type 3 during the environmental surveillance of poliovirus essential facilities in the Netherlands.

8 Feb 2023

InDevR raises $9 million in series B financing and partners with bioMérieux

New partnerships will drive the commercial expansion of InDevR’s game-changing solutions for vaccines and biotherapeutics.

20 Jan 2023

mRNA vaccine methodologies: Production, value and spectrometer use

To be decided by the editor

From Thermo Fisher Scientific – Materials & Structural Analysis 16 Dec 2022

New approach to detect misinformation in an emergent health domain on social media

A paper coauthored by PhD student Lanyu Shang and members of Associate Professor Dong Wang's research group, the Social Sensing and Intelligence Lab in the School of Information Sciences at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, received the best paper award in the research track during the 2022 IEEE/ACM International Conference on Advances in Social Network Analysis and Mining (ASONAM 2022).

13 Dec 2022

Five important things to know about polio

Public Health authorities have warned health care workers to be on the alert for polio, yet most physicians will not be familiar with presentation of this highly infectious, life-threatening disease.

15 Nov 2022

25 years on, varicella vaccination reports impressive success in the USA

New research suggests that 25 years on, varicella vaccination continues to report impressive success in the USA.

26 Oct 2022

Impaired SARS-CoV-2 neutralization after booster vaccination in the elderly

A recent study investigates poorer vaccine responses observed in the elderly following receipt of a COVID-19 booster vaccination dose.

19 Oct 2022

Scientists use enhanced environmental surveillance for poliovirus type 2 detection in London sewage samples

In a new study, researchers investigated molecular properties of type 2 poliovirus (PV) isolates obtained from sewage samples (SS) to detect PV transmission in communities.

17 Oct 2022

Advanced cryo-electron microscope reveals how poliovirus takes over human cells

For the first time, researchers at Umeå University, Sweden, can now show how the dreaded poliovirus behaves when it takes over an infected cell and tricks the cell into producing new virus particles.

12 Oct 2022

The role of wastewater surveillance for monitoring monkeypox

A new study reviews the advantages and current challenges associated with wastewater-based surveillance of MPXV.

10 Oct 2022

BU investigator wins highly competitive awards to study the role of proteases in regulation of cellular defenses

Mohsan Saeed, PhD, assistant professor of biochemistry at Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM), has received a five-year, $2 million R35 grant from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences, as well as a five-year, $2.5 million R01 grant from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

20 Sep 2022

Environmental surveillance detects poliovirus type 2 outbreaks in Israel

The wastewater environmental surveillance conducted in Jerusalem, Israel, has detected an increasing population of poliovirus type 2. Furthermore, these viral isolates are associated with vaccine-derived viral strains.

19 Sep 2022

United States joins 30 other countries with circulating vaccine-derived poliovirus

CDC today announced that polioviruses found in New York, both from the case of paralytic polio in an unvaccinated adult in Rockland County and in several wastewater samples from communities near the patient's residence, meet the World Health Organization (WHO)'s criteria for circulating vaccine-derived poliovirus (cVDPV) – meaning that poliovirus continues to be transmitted in Rockland County, NY, and surrounding areas.

19 Sep 2022

Study develops single-use microneedle patch tattoos with wide-ranging application potential

Researchers developed a rapid, sterile, and painless method of tattooing using single-use microneedle tattoo patches, which can be used for cosmetic and veterinary applications and storing medical information.

19 Sep 2022

Vaccine-derived poliovirus 2 detected in environmental samples in the UK and USA

Over the last few months, poliovirus 2 derived from the strain used in the Sabin vaccine (oral polio vaccine) has been repeatedly detected in environmental samples in the USA as well as in the UK. What does this signify?

15 Sep 2022

CDC Health Alert Network provides recommendations to manage the recent increase in severe respiratory illness among children

The US CDC’s HAN has provided certain recommendations to inform healthcare providers, infection control professionals, clinical laboratories, and public health departments about the recent increase in pediatric cases of severe respiratory illness in several regions of the USA.

14 Sep 2022

Polio News and Research

Further Reading

Vaccination coverage drops in U.S. schools, raising concerns of outbreaks

A mobile vaccine printer could enable rapid vaccination of large numbers of people

Salk study opens an entirely new way of thinking about cognitive decline

Vaccination rate remains unchanged but misinformation about flu and Covid-19 stays

Detection of wild poliovirus type 3 in the Netherlands

InDevR raises $9 million in series B financing and partners with bioMérieux

mRNA vaccine methodologies: Production, value and spectrometer use

New approach to detect misinformation in an emergent health domain on social media

Five important things to know about polio

25 years on, varicella vaccination reports impressive success in the USA

Impaired SARS-CoV-2 neutralization after booster vaccination in the elderly

Scientists use enhanced environmental surveillance for poliovirus type 2 detection in London sewage samples

Advanced cryo-electron microscope reveals how poliovirus takes over human cells

The role of wastewater surveillance for monitoring monkeypox

BU investigator wins highly competitive awards to study the role of proteases in regulation of cellular defenses

Environmental surveillance detects poliovirus type 2 outbreaks in Israel

United States joins 30 other countries with circulating vaccine-derived poliovirus

Study develops single-use microneedle patch tattoos with wide-ranging application potential

Vaccine-derived poliovirus 2 detected in environmental samples in the UK and USA

CDC Health Alert Network provides recommendations to manage the recent increase in severe respiratory illness among children

Expanding research and clinical options for children with cancer

Examining how pain could play a direct protective role in the gut

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