Talk to Your Patients About: Polio
By Sean Price

There is a lot of misinformation about vaccines, so each month Texas Medicine magazine highlights a disease that childhood and adult immunizations can prevent. The material is designed to help you talk to your patients about the severity of these diseases and to help them understand the benefits of vaccines.

February’s Texas Medicine magazine highlights polio, a virus that was mostly  eradicated in the United States by 1979, thanks to a vaccine. However, we still vaccinate children here because the crippling disease remains a problem in Asia and Africa, and it could spread when people travel.

Two polio vaccines exist: inactivated polio vaccine (IPV) and oral polio vaccine (OPV). Since 2000, only IPV — given in four doses — has been used in the United States because it is safer and more effective. But OPV still is used in many countries.

For more information about talking to your patients about polio, including a printable copy of the infographic below and a simple educational video, see the Texas Medical Association’s website.

TMA designed the series to inform patients of the facts about these diseases and to help them understand the benefits of vaccinations to prevent illness. Diseases covered so far include:

Visit the TMA website to see efforts to raise immunization awareness and how funding is used to increase vaccination rates.

TMA actively works to improve vaccination rates in Texas through its Be Wise — ImmunizeSM program. More than 340,000 shots have been given to Texas children, adolescents, and adults since the program began in 2004. It is funded in 2019 by the TMA Foundation thanks to H-E-B, TMF Health Quality Institute, Pfizer Inc., and gifts from physicians and their families.

Last Updated On

September 11, 2023

Originally Published On

February 11, 2019

Related Content

Immunization