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Risk factors
By Mayo Clinic staffYou're at greatest risk of polio if you haven't been immunized against the disease. In areas with poor sanitation and sporadic or nonexistent immunization programs, the most vulnerable members of the population — pregnant women, the very young and those with weakened immune systems — are especially susceptible to poliovirus.
These factors also increase your risk if you haven't been vaccinated:
- Travel to an area where polio is common or that has recently experienced an outbreak
- Living with or caring for someone who may be shedding poliovirus
- Handling laboratory specimens that contain live poliovirus
- A compromised immune system, such as occurs with HIV infection
- Having had your tonsils removed (tonsillectomy)
- Extreme stress or strenuous physical activity after being exposed to poliovirus, both of which can depress your immune system
- Polio disease - Questions and answers. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. http://www.cdc.gov/print.do?url=http://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/vpd-vac/polio/dis-faqs.htm. Accessed Jan. 16, 2009.
- Poliomyelitis. World Health Organization. http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs114/en/index.html. Accessed Jan. 16, 2009.
- Simmons Z. Polio and infectious diseases of the anterior horn. http://www.uptodate.com/home/index.html. Accessed Jan. 9, 2009.
- Howard RS. Poliomyelitis and the postpolio syndrome. British Medical Journal. 2005;330:1314.
- Atkinson W, et al. Poliomyelitis. In: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Epidemiology and Prevention of Vaccine-Preventable Diseases. 10th ed. Washington D.C.: Public Health Foundation; 2008:101.
- Shefner JM, et al. Post-polio syndrome. http://www.uptodate.com/home/index.html. Accessed Jan. 9, 2009.
- Risk factors. Global Polio Eradication Initiative. http://www.polioeradication.org/risk.asp. Accessed Jan. 19, 2009.
- Sorenson EJ, et al. Electrophysiological findings in a cohort of old polio survivors. Journal of the Peripheral Nervous System. 2006;11:241.
- Modlin JF. Poliovirus vaccination. http://www.uptodate.com/home/index.html. Accessed Jan. 9, 2009.
- Polio vaccine: What you need to know. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. http://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/pubs/vis/downloads/vis-IPV.pdf. Accessed Jan. 16, 2009.
- Pediarix (prescribing information). Research Triangle Park, N.C.: GlaxoSmithKline; 2008.
