Aurora Starchild
New York is fearing the worst after discovering polio in its wastewater samples. People are urged to get their polio vaccinations immediately. The alternative is a real potential to contract this deadly and paralyzing virus. A single case of polio was discovered in a Rockland County resident in July. But now wastewater samples show that it’s been spreading far and wide.
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Water Samples Show Polio Has Spread Far and Wide
Long Island wastewater samples showed positive cases of polio. The CDC has found 50 individual samples directly linked to the paralytic polio case of the Rockland County resident in July. Infected samples were found in Rockland, Orange, Nassau, and Sullivan Counties in New York. While no one else has been hospitalized for polio in New York, experts fear that may change soon.
Officials have been issuing grave warnings to get children vaccinated as quickly as possible. As of September 9, Governor Hochul is ordering that extra, rapid efforts be made to get any and all unvaccinated people access to poliovirus vaccines.
Polio can spread rapidly and undetected, just like COVID-19. Infected individuals may carry no symptoms but are extremely contagious. Poliovirus causes symptoms like fatigue, vomiting, fever, muscle pain, paralysis, and sometimes death.
Rockland Polio Case Originally Thought to Come From Abroad, Now Believed Was Contracted Locally
This specific strain of poliovirus was originally believed to have originated outside of the United States, as it could not have come from United States polio vaccines. U.S. polio vaccines use inactivated poliovirus, which cannot cause polio.
However, the recent water sample findings provide evidence that the recently infected individual contracted it locally.
The New York State Department of Health issued the following statement:
“These environmental findings provide evidence that the unvaccinated individual Rockland County resident with paralytic polio contracted the virus through local—not abroad or international—transmission and raise concerns about the potential for community spread of poliovirus that can cause paralysis in these communities. This underscores the urgency of every adult and child, particularly those in the greater New York metropolitan area, to get immunized and stay up to date with their polio immunization schedule.
“New Yorkers should know that these environmental findings do not indicate that the individual in Rockland County was the source of the transmission, and case investigation into the origin of the virus is ongoing.”
First Poliovirus Case in the U.S. in a Decade
The July Rockland County discovery was the first poliovirus case known to exist in the U.S. since 2013. The last non-vaccine-derived, or “wild” polio case in the U.S. was in 1979.
Governor Kathy Hochul has issued the third emergency declaration in a month related to deadly viruses. On August 13, Hochul issued a declaration related to COVID-19 hospitalization rates. Two weeks later, she issued an emergency declaration for Monkeypox. And now, two months after polio was discovered in a patient in New York, it seems that it’s been spreading farther and more quickly than originally thought.
Less than 80% of New York residents have received poliovirus vaccinations. If you are a Rockland County resident and you or your children have not yet received the poliovirus vaccine, you can find a vaccination clinic by clicking here. You can also contact your primary physician.
