Q
Is there any danger in getting a second polio inoculation if I cannot remember if I got one many years ago (1950s, postwar Japan)?
A
No. There is no harm in receiving a booster of the polio vaccine.
In the United States, widespread polio vaccinations began in the 1950s. After initial campaigns with a killed virus given by injection, the authorities switched to using a weakened live form of the virus given orally. That's the method still used today in the developing world.
However, in this country, doctors have returned to using an injected version with a killed virus. Because the polio virus infects you through your intestines, the oral vaccine is much more protective. But the oral form is no longer given in the United States because polio is not a threat here any more, and because there is a one-in-a-million chance that even a weak, live virus can mutate to become harmful again.
Q
I was vaccinated against polio as a child but am now over 50 years old and will be traveling to Pakistan. Do I need a booster dose of the vaccine or am I protected?
A
You should receive a booster. This is the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommendation for travel to Pakistan and several other countries:
"Single lifetime additional I.P.V. (inactivated polio vaccine) dose recommended for adults who received routine vaccination series as children; routine series recommended for unvaccinated or incompletely vaccinated children and adults and those with unknown vaccination status."
Q
Two of my grandchildren are going to Israel in June. Do they have to worry about getting the polio vaccine?
A
The answer depends on the age of the person traveling. The C.D.C. does not recommend boosters for adults unless they are traveling to a country where polio is circulating (or unless they work in a lab or are a health care worker taking care of polio patients.) That list currently includes Israel and could expand any time, since the virus is on the move.
If children or young adults traveling to one of these countries have already had the vaccine, they most likely do not need a booster. But the C.D.C.'s age recommendations are rough guidelines and everyone's immune system is different. If there are any concerns, consult a doctor, preferably a travel medicine specialist.
Do you have a health question? Submit your question to Ask Well.
This post has been revised to reflect the following correction:
Correction: May 15, 2014
An answer in the Ask Well column on Tuesday, about polio booster shots, described incorrectly the history of polio vaccination in the United States. Initial campaigns in the 1950s used an injected version of the vaccine — not the oral version, which was introduced a few years later.
A version of this article appears in print on 05/13/2014, on page D6 of the NewYork edition with the headline: Ask Well.
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