Polio Returns to US: CDC Sends Team to New York to Investigate Case

Polio was thought to have been eradicated in the United States after decades of vaccinations. However, a case of the disease was detected in Rockland County, New York, prompting the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to deploy a team to the county to investigate.

According to ABC News, the team will also help administer polio vaccinations in the county. However, it is still unclear how long the CDC team will remain there or whether or not they will release their findings to the public.

The CDC recently released a statement saying they were collaborating with the New York State Department of Health to investigate this recent case of paralytic polio. The individual was described in the statement as unvaccinated.

First Case of Polio in the United States in Nearly a Decade

Polio has largely been eradicated in the United States, so when the New York State Health Department announced this new case last July 21, it became the first case in the United States in nearly a decade.

Another report by ABC News noted that the infection might have come from outside the United States, as the unvaccinated individual was exposed to someone who recently took the oral polio vaccine.

That kind of vaccine dose contains a weakened version of the polio virus that can be excreted in stool and transmitted.

However, it has not been administered in the United States since 2000, meaning it might have originated from abroad. The infected person did not travel abroad, which means the infection happened on U.S. soil.

The infected person was described as a 20-year-old man. That person's symptoms began a month ago and he suffered some paralysis due to the disease.

It is still unknown whether that paralysis may become permanent. However, health officials did confirm that the infected person is no longer contagious.

Polio Virus Detected in New York Wastewater

When an infected person excretes stool, the virus can also be excreted into the wastewater or the sewage treatment facility.

Unfortunately, the virus had already been detected in seven wastewater samples around Rockland County, according to Spectrum News 1.

The New York State Department of Health and the CDC will continue to test wastewater samples from municipal plants around the county. They also wanted to make it clear that wastewater is not drinking water.

The director of the state Health Department's Bureau of Communicable Disease Control, Bryon Backenson, noted that wastewater is usually flushed down the toilets and is different from the water people drink.

To help fight the spread of the virus, New York state officials are urging those unvaccinated to get their shots. While vaccination is required in New York, enforcement is a different story, as rules differ from region to region in the state.

A total of 79% of New Yorkers have completed their polio vaccination series by the age of 2. However, it is lower in Rockland County and nearby Orange County, where the vaccination rate is at 60% and 59%, respectively.

Misinformation from the anti-vaxxer movement and conspiracy theorists has helped lower the vaccination rates in the entire country. It culminated in the hesitancy to get vaccinated for COVID-19.

This article is owned by Latin Post.

Written by: Rick Martin

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