ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — New York state health officials issued a more urgent call Thursday for unvaccinated children and adults to get vaccinated against polio, citing new evidence of possible “community spread” of the dangerous virus.
The polio virus has now been detected in seven different samples of sewage in two neighboring counties north of New York, health officials said.
So far, only one person has tested positive for polio — an unvaccinated adult in Rockland County who suffered paralysis.
But based on earlier polio outbreaks, “New Yorkers should know that for every observed case of paralytic polio, there may be hundreds of other people infected,” state Health Commissioner Dr. Mary T. Bassett said in a statement.
“Coupled with the latest findings about the effluent, the Department is treating the single case of polio as just the tip of the iceberg of a much larger potential spread,” she said. “As we learn more, what we know is clear: the danger of polio exists in New York today. We must meet this moment by ensuring that adults, including pregnant people, and infants as young as 2 months old are up to date on their immunizations – the surefire protection against this debilitating virus that every New Yorker needs.”
The polio patient in Rockland County is the first person known to have contracted the virus in the U.S. in nearly a decade. Sewage samples collected in June and July in neighboring Orange County also contained the virus.
Polio, once one of the nation’s most feared diseases, was declared eliminated in the United States in 1979, more than two decades after vaccines became available.
Most people infected with polio do not have symptoms, but they can still shed the virus and pass it on to others for days or weeks. A small percentage of people who get the disease suffer from paralysis. The disease is fatal for between 5-10% of those paralyzed.
All New York City students are required to have the polio vaccine, but vaccination enforcement can be lax in some districts. Rockland and Orange counties are known as centers of vaccine resistance. Nationwide, about 79% of them have completed a series of polio vaccinations by the age of two. In Orange County, that percentage is 59%. In Rockland it’s 60%.
Orange County’s wastewater samples were initially taken from municipal treatment plants for testing for COVID-19.
“It is concerning that polio, a disease that has been largely eradicated by vaccination, is now circulating in our community, especially given the low vaccination rates for this debilitating disease in certain areas of our county,” said Orange County Health Commissioner Irina Gelman I said. “I urge all unvaccinated Orange County residents to get vaccinated as soon as medically possible.”
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