On Thursday, New York state health officials announced a polio case, the first in the United States in in a decade.
Officials did not immediately provide information about the Rockland County resident’s identity, vaccination status, or present health.
State officials said the person looked to have a vaccine-derived form of the virus, perhaps from someone who received live vaccine — accessible in other countries but not in the United States — and distributed it.
Polio was previously one of the most dreaded illnesses in the country, with annual outbreaks resulting in thousands of instances of paralysis, many of which were in youngsters.
The identity of the victim of the first polio case in New York since 2013 has not yet been revealed. However, the victim is a resident of Rockland County.
According to the CDC, vaccines were available in 1955, and a countrywide immunization effort reduced the yearly number of cases to less than 100 in the 1960s and less than 10 in the 1970s.
Polio was declared eradicated in the United States in 1979, indicating that the virus was no longer being propagated on a regular basis in the country. Travelers with polio have carried illnesses into the United States on rare occasions, with the most recent occurrence being in 2013.
Children in the United States are still frequently immunized against polio. Federal officials advise giving four doses at the following intervals: two months, four months, six to 18 months, and four to six years. Some states just require three dosages.
According to the most recent CDC data on childhood immunization, around 93 percent of 2-year-olds had gotten at least three doses of polio vaccine.
Polio is mostly transmitted from person to person or by contaminated water. It can infect a person’s spinal cord, resulting in paralysis, severe impairment, and death. Children are disproportionately affected by the condition.
Polio is widespread in Afghanistan and Pakistan, but instances have been documented in a number of African, Middle Eastern, and Asian nations in recent years.
After the polio virus was discovered in London sewage samples last month, health officials in the United Kingdom cautioned parents to ensure their children were immunized. There were no reports of paralysis.
