As a result of polio being discovered in the state of New York (NY), the governor of NY declared a state of emergency. According to health officials, New York City and four neighboring counties had their wastewater tested, the results of which revealed the presence of poliovirus that can be the cause of paralysis.
Only a single case has been detected so far, but it was the first positive polio case in the country in almost ten years. Polio was mainly eliminated from the United States after vaccinations started in 1955, about 67 years ago. 24 years following the beginning of vaccinations in 1979, the country was decalred to be “polio-free”.
However, New York officials report that the rates of vaccination are very low in some areas of the state. The aim of the declared emergency is to accelerate immunization rates.
A cure for polio has not been discovered yet, but preventive measure exists in the form of the vaccine. Generally, the virus affects children and causes weakness in the muscle and at times paralysis. It could also cause everlasting disability or even death in the worst cases.
The present average vaccination rate in New York is just below 80% as the New York state health department claims that its goal is to increase it to over 90%.
Dr. Mary Bassett, Health Commissioner stated, “On polio, we simply cannot roll the dice. If you or your child are unvaccinated or not up to date with vaccinations, the risk of paralytic disease is real. For every one case of paralytic polio observed, there may be hundreds of other people infected”.
As a routine childhood program, the United States and the United Kingdom both use an inactivated polio vaccine, which can be said to be a disarmed poliovirus. According to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data on vaccination, about 93% of toddlers in the United States have had three or more doses of the polio vaccine.
The monitoring of the wastewater at multiple locations in New York was commenced in July following the first case of polio recorded in the last 9 years. The polio case was from a little north of New York City, in Rockland County, where a man contracted the virus and experienced paralysis. He was not vaccinated against the virus.
After working on the case, it was discovered that it was genetically connected to paralytic polio which was found in a sample of wastewater that was gathered from a country close by called Nassau.
Samples of wastewater from Sullivan County, Orange County, and the five districts of New York City came out positive for the paralytic polio virus.
This state of emergency order by governor Kathy Hochul is the third emergency order of the year in the state of New York. The first two were in response to the fast-spreading monkeypox and prior to that the global epidemic coronavirus. This state of emergency allows EMS workers, pharmacists, and midwives to administer the polio vaccine and also allows the doctors to issue orders for the rollout of the vaccine.
