What you need to know.

¨      Why get vaccinated?
Polio is a disease.  It can paralyze (make arms and legs unable to move) or even cause death.  Polio vaccine can prevent polio.  Before polio vaccine, thousands of our children got polio every year.  Polio vaccine is helping to rid the world of polio. When that happens, no one will ever get polio again, and we will not need polio vaccine.  However until polio has been eliminated from the world, if we stop using the vaccine, we would likely see re-emergence of this devastating disease.

In the past, the oral vaccine was standard, but now, due to a slight chance of complications in the oral vaccine, your CMP Providers now only use IPV (Inactivated Polio Vaccine – a shot).

¨      Who should get polio vaccine and when?

       IPV is a shot, given in the leg or arm, depending on age.

            ¨      Children
           
            Most children should get 4 doses of polio vaccine at these ages:

            A dose at 2 months
            A dose at 4 months
            A dose at 6-18 months
            A dose (booster) at 4-6 years

            ¨      Adults
            Most adults do not need polio vaccine because they were already vaccinated as children.  But three groups of adults are at higher risk
            and should consider polio vaccination:
            1)      people traveling to areas of the world where polio is common
            2)      laboratory workers who might handle polio virus, and
            3)      healthcare workers treating patients who could have polio.

            Adults in these three groups who have not been vaccinated against polio should get 3 doses of IPV:

            The first dose any time,
            The second dose 1 to 2 months later
            The third dose 6 to 12 months after the second.

¨      What are the advantages

    Cannot cause polio.
    Safer for immunizing people with immune system problems and people in close contact with them.

¨      What are the risks from IPV?

Some people who get IPV get a sore spot where the shot gas given. The vaccine used today has never been known to cause any serious problems, and most people don’t have any problems at all with it.

However, a vaccine, like any medicine, could cause serious problems, such as a severe allergic reaction.  The risk of a polio shot causing serious harm, or death, is extremely small.

¨      Some children should not get these vaccines or should wait.

 Tell your doctor or nurse if your child:

¨      Ever had a serious reaction after getting polio vaccine
¨      Now has a moderate or severe illness

¨      What if there is a serious reaction

 What should I look for?

     ¨      See “risks” for possible risks

 What should I do?

        ¨      Call a doctor, or get the person to a doctor right away
  ¨      Tell your doctor what happened, the date and time it happened, and when the vaccination was given
  ¨      Ask your provider or the health department to file a Vaccine Adverse Event
         Reporting System (VAERS) form or call VAERS yourself at 1-800-822-7967

 ¨      The National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program

        In the rare event that you or your child has a serious reaction to a vaccine, a federal program
  has been created to help you pay for the care of those who have been harmed.  For details
  about the National Vaccine Injury compensation Program, call 1-800-338-2382.

 ¨      How can I learn more?

       Ask your CMP provider.  He/she can give you the vaccine package insert or suggest other
 sources of information.

Call your local or state health department’s immunization program.

Contact the Centers for Disease control and Prevention (CDC):

Call 1-800-232-2522 (English)

            Call 1-800-232-0233 (Espanol) 

**Information courtesy of U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, the Center for Disease Control and the American Academy of Pediatrics.