In a surprising development, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) has issued travel alerts for Americans to take all the precautionary measures against the rapidly spreading disease globally, Polio.
CDC cautioned travelers to “practice enhanced precautions” ahead of visiting 32 countries.
Moreover, the agency has strongly recommended travels to ensure receiving their polio vaccines, adding that people who plan to travel to the listed countries are eligible for a single-dose booster of the vaccine.
The countries named by CDC include, Spain, Finland, Germany, and Poland — as well as the UK.
As the CDC explains, polio, which is caused by the extremely contagious poliovirus, is “a crippling and potentially deadly disease that affects the nervous system.” It lives in the feces of an infected person, but can also be spread via eating or drinking food that’s been contaminated.
Polio doesn't show any symptoms, but when it does, people experience nausea, headache, fever, fatigue, and sore throat.
In some cases, polio can lead to paralysis, as it did with the U.S. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who needed a wheelchair after he contracted the disease.
The CDC stated, “vaccination has helped eliminate wild poliovirus in the United States."
A major factor which significantly contributes to the disease is vaccination hesitancy.
List of countries with rapidly spreading cases of Polio
Here is the list of all the 32 countries that are experiencing a major hike in Polio cases:
- Afghanistan
- Algeria
- Angola
- Benin
- Burkina Faso
- Cameroon
- Central African Republic
- Chad
- Côte d'Ivoire
- Democratic Republic of the Congo
- Djibouti, Ethiopia
- Finland
- Gaza
- Germany
- Ghana
- Guinea
- Israel
- Niger
- Nigeria
- Pakistan
- Papua New Guinea
- Poland
- Senegal
- Somalia
- South Sudan
- Spain
- Sudan
- Tanzania
- United Kingdom
- Yeme
- Zimbabwe.
