The polio virus was present in sewage in a New York suburb a month before health officials announced a confirmed case of the disease last month, state officials said Monday, urging residents to make sure they are vaccinated. The discovery of the disease from sewage samples collected in June means the virus was present in the community before the Rockland County adult’s diagnosis was made public on July 21. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said in an emailed statement that the presence of the virus in the wastewater suggests there may be more people in the community shedding the virus in their feces. However, the CDC added that no new cases have been identified and that it is not yet clear whether the virus is actively spreading in New York or elsewhere in the United States. Laboratory tests also confirmed that the case strain is genetically related to a strain found in Israel, although that does not mean the patient had traveled to Israel, officials added. The CDC said genetic sequencing also linked it to samples of the highly contagious and life-threatening virus in the United Kingdom. The patient had started showing symptoms in June, when local officials asked doctors to be on the lookout for cases, according to the New York Times. “Given how quickly polio can spread, now is the time for every adult, parent and guardian to get themselves and their children vaccinated as soon as possible,” said State Health Commissioner Dr. Mary Bassett. There is no cure for polio, which can cause irreversible paralysis in some cases, but it can be prevented with a vaccine that became available in 1955. New York City officials said they are opening vaccination clinics to help unvaccinated residents get shots. Inactivated polio vaccine (IPV) is the only polio vaccine given in the United States since 2000, according to the CDC. It is given by injection in the leg or arm, depending on the age of the patient. Polio is often asymptomatic and people can spread the virus even when they don’t look sick. However, it can cause mild flu-like symptoms that can take up to 30 days to appear, officials said. It can strike at any age, but the majority of those affected are children aged three and under. The New York State Department of Health told Reuters that based on the available evidence, it was unable to conclude with certainty whether the positive polio samples came from the case identified in Rockland County. “Certainly, when samples like these are found, concerns are raised about the potential for community spread — that’s why it’s extremely important that anyone who isn’t vaccinated, particularly in the Rockland County area, get vaccinated as soon as possible,” the department said. The polio vaccine developed by Dr. Jonas Salk in the 1950s was heralded as a scientific breakthrough to combat the global scourge, which has now been largely eradicated nationally. The United States has not seen an outbreak of polio in the country since 1979, although outbreaks were detected in 1993 and 2013.
