New York City health officials reported a case of polio Thursday, the first in the United States in nearly a decade.
Officials said the Rockland County resident was an unvaccinated adult, but did not provide details on the person’s condition.
The person appears to have had a vaccine-derived strain of the virus, perhaps from someone who received a live vaccine — available in other countries but not in the U.S. — and spread it, officials said.
Polio was once one of the nation’s most feared diseases, with annual outbreaks causing thousands of cases of paralysis—many of them in children.
Vaccines became available starting in 1955, and a national vaccination campaign reduced the annual number of cases in the U.S. to fewer than 100 in the 1960s and fewer than 10 in the 1970s, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
In 1979, polio was declared eliminated in the United States, meaning it is no longer routinely distributed. Rarely, travelers with polio have brought infections to the US, with the last such case in 2013.
WATCH | A look back at the history of polio in Canada:
History of poliomyelitis in Canada
A look back at 1953, when polio last struck Canada.
Children in the US are still routinely vaccinated against polio. Federal officials recommend four doses: given every two months; four months; six to 18 months old; and ages four to six. Some states require only three doses.
According to the CDC’s most recent childhood vaccination data, about 93 percent of two-year-olds have received at least three doses of the polio vaccine.
Polio is spread primarily from person to person or through contaminated water. It can infect a person’s spinal cord, causing paralysis and possibly permanent disability and death. The disease mainly affects children.
Polio is endemic in Afghanistan and Pakistan, although many countries in Africa, the Middle East and Asia have also reported cases in recent years.
Rockland County, in New York’s northern suburbs, has been a hotbed of vaccine resistance in recent years. In a measles epidemic in 2018-2019, 312 people were infected there.
Last month, health authorities in Britain warned parents to make sure children were vaccinated after the polio virus was found in sewage samples in London. No cases of paralysis have been reported.
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