Calysta Images | Tetra Images | Getty Images Hundreds could have polio after an adult in the New York metro area contracted the virus and became paralyzed last month, the state’s top health official said this week. New York State Health Commissioner Mary Bassett warned that the confirmed case of polio in an unvaccinated adult, combined with the detection of the virus in sewage outside the nation’s largest city, could indicate a larger outbreak is underway. epidemic. “Based on past polio cases, New Yorkers should be aware that for every one case of paralytic polio seen, there may be hundreds of other people who are infected,” Bassett said. “Combined with the latest sewage findings, the department is treating the single case of polio as just the tip of the iceberg of a much larger potential spread.” Bassett said it’s important to get children vaccinated by age 2 months, and all adults — including pregnant women — who haven’t received the vaccine should do so immediately. “As we learn more, what we know is clear: The risk of polio is present in New York today,” Bassett said. New York state health officials confirmed last month that an unvaccinated adult in Rockland County had contracted polio and was hospitalized with paralysis. Health officials subsequently found three positive samples of polio in Rockland County’s sewage and four positive samples in neighboring Orange County’s sewage. The sewage samples that tested positive for polio are genetically linked to the strain that the unvaccinated adult caught. The findings do not indicate that the person who contracted polio was the source of transmission, but local spread may be underway, health officials said. “These findings provide further evidence of local – not international – transmission of a polio virus that can cause paralysis and possible community spread, underscoring the urgent need to vaccinate every New York adult and child,” the New York State Department of Health said. York. Rockland County has a 60 percent polio vaccination rate, while Orange County has a 58 percent vaccination rate, according to health officials. The national polio vaccination rate is nearly 79%. The U.S. was declared polio-free in 1979 and no cases have occurred in the country since, but travelers have occasionally brought the virus into the U.S., according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. New York last confirmed a case of polio in 1990, and the U.S. previously confirmed a case in 2013, according to state health officials. Children should receive four doses of the polio vaccine. The first dose should be given by age 2 months, the second dose by 4 months, the third by 18 months and the fourth by age 6, according to state health officials. Unvaccinated adults should receive three doses. Polio is a highly contagious, devastating virus that can cause paralysis. The virus struck fear into the hearts of parents in the 1940s before vaccines were available. More than 35,000 people were paralyzed each year by polio at that time. But a successful vaccination campaign in the 1950s and 1960s dramatically reduced the number of cases.
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