New York state health officials on Thursday stepped up their push for the unvaccinated polio to get vaccinated “immediately,” saying that a confirmed case of the disease found in the state could be the “tip of the iceberg” of a much broader threat.
The emergency call came as officials said polio had been detected in wastewater samples taken at several locations and at different times in two counties north of New York City, with ability to signal community spread of the disease.
“Based on previous polio outbreaks, New Yorkers should be aware that for every case of polio observed, there could be hundreds of others infected.” Dr. Mary T. Bassett, the state’s health commissioner, said in a statement.
“Along with the latest wastewater findings,” added Dr. Bassett, “the department is treating a single case of polio that is just the tip of the iceberg with a much greater potential for transmission.”
Polio is caused by the poliovirus, and children under the age of 5 are most at risk, but anyone who has not been vaccinated is at risk. Polio is highly contagious, often spreading from person to person when someone comes into contact with the feces of an infected person and then touches their mouth.
The fight against polio
The highly contagious virus was one of the most feared diseases until the 1950s, when the first vaccine was developed.
Many cases are asymptomatic, and some can cause dizzying symptoms, but this disease, also known as polio, can be disabling and even life-threatening. Cannot be cured.
Paralysis is a rare outcome, but before the vaccine became widely available in the 1950s, polio outbreaks caused more 15,000 cases of paralysis every year.
Last month, a case of polio – first reported in the United States in nearly a decade – was identified in an unvaccinated adult male in Rockland County. There have been no cases originating in the United States since 1979.
State and county health officials said infection in Rockland County was transmitted from a person who received the oral polio vaccine, which has not been used in the United States since 2000.
The virus circulating in New York may have originated outside of the United States, where oral vaccines are still used, officials said. Oral vaccines contain attenuated virus. It is safe, but if the vaccine-derived virus circulates in the community, it can infect unvaccinated people and spread the disease.
When announcing the case, officials emphasized that the infected person was no longer contagious and said their efforts would focus on increasing vaccination rates and determining if anyone else might be infected. influence or not.
Officials have said that polio was found in Rockland County wastewater samples taken in June, before the polio case was confirmed. On Thursday, they said evidence of the disease had also been found in wastewater samples taken in June and July from two “geographically different” areas of Orange County, which contiguous with Rockland.
The state Department of Health said in a press release: “These findings, “provide further evidence of domestic – not international” polio virus transmission.
Officials said there was no indication that the infected Rockland County man was the source of the polio found in sewage samples. The investigation into the origin of the virus is continuing.
Because widespread vaccination has been shown to be an effective prevention strategy, areas with low vaccination rates may be at particular risk of outbreaks.
In both the Rockland and the Orange Counties, approx 60% of 2 year olds received all three doses of the polio vaccine, according to state data — a rate significantly lower than 80 percent in the rest of the state, excluding New York City. (To achieve herd immunity to polio, target vaccination rate is 80%, according to the World Health Organization.)
Most adults in the United States do not need the polio vaccine because they were most likely vaccinated as children, although some people may be eligible for a booster shot if they have an increased risk of exposure.
