New Approved Emergency-Use Polio Vaccine

With recent news of the rollout of several promising COVID-19 vaccines, many of us are itching for life to go back to normal. But as we wait for its distribution, WISdom turns to recent headlines about a vaccine for another disease: polio. Polio is a viral disease that causes flu-like symptoms, but also more serious symptoms like paralysis and meningitis in more serious cases (source). While it has been largely eradicated, some outbreaks have been occurring in areas with low oral vaccination rates. The oral vaccine, however, does have a weakness: as the vaccine-administered virus multiplies in the gastrointestinal system, it can lose the genetic changes that differentiate it from wild poliovirus. In rare cases, this altered vaccine can spread among people if not enough people in a community have been vaccinated (source). That’s why the World Health Organization granted emergency use to a new polio vaccine in November that prevents such rapid mutation (source), in the hopes of curbing the spread of polio and finally wiping out polio for good. While the new orally-administered vaccine will work in any cases where polio is cropping back up, scientists are currently hoping to curb outbreaks in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Nigeria.

Natalie Wang is currently working on her undergraduate degree in neuroscience at Johns Hopkins University as a Hodson Trust Scholar. Her research interests are in DNA damage and repair, as well as post-operative delirium in elderly patients. Natalie started volunteering with WIS PDX in 2019 as a member of the outreach and education team. When not listening to music or doom-scrolling on Twitter, she can be found checking closets for Narnia.