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Comment by sph | Hacker News Reader

Possibly dumb question: what's the risk for a European adult that has done all his vaccines since childhood?

In The Netherlands, children are vaccinated before the age of 1 against (among other) polio since 1962. Vaccination degree is around 95%. There's an interesting tidbit about uptake in strict Protestant circles when there was a polio outbreak in the 1970s: after severaldeaths, they finally agreed taking it orally, as an injection was taboo.

Probably none. But you can get a booster like Boostrix-IPV [1]. You wouldn't get it for Polio specifically, but more to freshen up your Tetanus protection, which should be done every 10 years. Let's say you get scratched by a rose while gardening, then you can go to your doctor and let him know that you haven't had a refresh of the most common vaccines in over a decade. Maybe then ask specifically for that one. I got one in my 40s after an accident where the wound then had dirt in it.

The linked PDF contains the names of that product in different European countries on the last page.

[1] https://www.medicines.org.uk/emc/files/pil.5302.pdf

> You wouldn't get it for Polio specifically, but more to freshen up your Tetanus protection, which should be done every 10 years.

There is now debate on whether there is a need to 'freshen' up (boost) tetanus protection, due to a study published in 2020 that showed tetanus boosters give no benefit [1,2,3].

[1] https://academic.oup.com/cid/article/72/2/285/5741633

[2] https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/do-adults-really-need-te...

[3] https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/02/200225075120.h...

(The 2nd and 3rd references are discussing the study in the 1st reference)

One benefit of a tdap tetanus booster is a 42% lower risk of dementia:

https://academic.oup.com/biomedgerontology/article/76/8/1436...

The 10 years number is out of date. I think the UK was going to start recommending every 30 years. They give tetanus shots out like they're candy over here in US, even when it's common knowledge that it does nothing after the fact.

I'm concerned too, I don't think I was offered a polio vaccine, ever.

You probably were, it is part of the mandatory course administered to children (at least it was/is in Central/Eastern Europe)

Turns out I didn't remember it because it's part of those combined vaccines. I hope my immune memory is better than my cerebral.

You can get an adult booster. I was a recipient of pink sugar cube, possibly Salk vaccine in the 60s. I got a booster with my son's series in the 90s.

Building on this, the vaccination programmes of the EU countries have converged to the extent that I was able to vaccinate my 3 month old in accordance to the Swedish vaccination programme while on vacation in Portugal by just showing up at a health centre and asking for a vaccination in accordance to their vaccination programme.

They even use the same vaccines.

If you are younger than 30 you will have had a polio vaccine if you parents followed the national vaccine programme in any European country. If you are younger than 50 chances are that you have been vaccinated as well.

At least in France it's combined with the tetanus one - I'd imagine it's the same in other countries too.

Boostrix-IPV https://www.medicines.org.uk/emc/files/pil.5302.pdf

You may have had a 'cocktail' shot:

https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/parents/why-vaccinate/combinati...

That should be easy enough to sort out. Go to your GP and ask them about it, they should be able to make a booster shot happen.

Don’t you have a vaccination record /pass in which all childhood vaccinations are recorded? https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Certificate_of...

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