Polio found in New York County wastewater with only a 60% vaccination rate

 Polio found in New York County wastewater with only a 60% vaccination rate

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said the virus has been found in wastewater samples dating back to June, following recent reports of the first case of polio in the United States in almost a decade. According to the CDC, the polio cases were discovered in Rockland County, which is located north of New York City and is infamous for having low immunisation rates.

Officials from the New York State Department of Health announced on July 21 that a young adult from Rockland County had contracted polio. The person suffered severe polio paralysis and was not immunised.

When the case was first reported, health officials said the infection was related to a strain of the virus derived from a vaccine that is known to rarely spread in nations that still use an older polio vaccine that uses an active form of the virus. The person had not recently travelled abroad, therefore the infection's origin was unknown.

The CDC has now revealed in a fresh statement that wastewater samples taken from Rockland County as far back as early June had signs of the same vaccine-derived strain of polio seen in the previously verified case. The CDC emphasised that although there have been no new cases of polio recorded, there may have been some community transmission of the virus based on the long-lasting wastewater residues.

In an accompanying statement, the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI) reported on the genetic sequencing of the Rockland County polio strain, confirming that it was a type 2 poliovirus derived from a vaccine (VDPV2). The connection between this strain of polio in the US and a previous case of the disease discovered in London in June has also been established.

The GPEI reported that the VDPV2 isolated from the case is genetically linked to two Sabin-like type 2 (SL2) isolates, collected from environmental samples in early June in both New York and greater Jerusalem, Israel, as well as to the recently-detected VDPV2 from environmental samples in London, UK.

The problem for public health is that polio is very contagious and can quickly spread asymptomatically to numerous individuals before causing significant paralysis in less than 1% of infections. Once it has spread throughout a population, this makes polio a challenging disease to contain, along with an incubation period that can last for two to three weeks.

Health officials in New York State are actively urging all unvaccinated residents of the state to go get vaccinated. This involves paying special attention to expectant women and children who are at least two months old. The CDC claims that the polio vaccination now in use in the US is 100% effective and contains an inactive version of the virus.

Due to its low immunisation rates, Rockland County in particular has been mentioned as an area of concern. Its two-year-old polio vaccination rate is currently only 60.5%, which is much lower than the 79.1% state average in New York.

According to Mary Bassett, the health commissioner for New York State, polio is a hazardous illness that could have disastrous effects. "In the United States, we are incredibly fortunate to have access to the essential protection provided by the polio vaccine, which has protected New Yorkers and our nation for more than 60 years. Every adult, parent, and guardian should immunise themselves and their children as soon as feasible given how quickly polio can spread."

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