There's a large population of people unvaccinated for childhood diseases in Rockland county and among frum people in general.
I'm pretty sure once you're vaccinated for polio, you're good to go; no booster needed.
In the US, we now use dead virus in our polio vaccine.
In Europe and Israel, (some) of the polio vaccines use live, weakened virus in the vaccine. This can be spread via the fecal-oral route to others. If the person it spreads to was already vaccinated, no problem. If not, he may catch polio.
Most cases of polio are not severe; many are mildly symptomatic. But sometimes it affects important nerves and can cause paralysis; it can even paralyse the nerves that control breathing.
So the old pictures of polio victims were of people in wheelchairs and on crutches with leg braces and people in "iron lungs" - the precursor of respirators.
People affected with polio shed virus in their urine, so government agencies track waste water for virus as a way of tracking it in communities.
Recently a young man in Monsey became paralyzed after contracting polio from a person vaccinated in Europe.
Rockland county has high polio virus loads in their waste water. As does other areas by now. Anyone unvaccinated for polio is potentially at risk.
Rockland county polio vaccine rate is about 60%. Other areas (I forgot what it was compared to) had an 80% polio vaccine rate.
