WASHINGTON — The polio virus was present in sewage in a New York suburb a month before health officials there announced a confirmed case of the disease last month, state health officials said Monday, urging residents to be sure they are vaccinated.
The discovery of the disease in sewage samples collected in June means the virus was present in the community before the diagnosis of an adult in Rockland County 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 sewage indicates there may be more people in the community shedding the virus in their stool.
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 strain in the case was genetically related to one found in Israel, although that did 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 UK.
The patient began 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 vaccinate themselves and their children 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 by a vaccine made available in 1955.
New York City officials said they are opening vaccine clinics to help unvaccinated residents get their shots. Inactivated polio vaccine (IPV) has been the only polio vaccine given in the United States since 2000, according to the CDC. It is administered by injection into the leg or arm, depending on the age of the patient.
Polio is often asymptomatic, and people can transmit the virus even when they don’t look sick. But 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 three years of age and older.
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 stemmed from the case identified in Rockland County.
“Of course, when samples like these are identified, it raises concerns about the potential for community spread — which is why it’s extremely important that anyone who isn’t vaccinated, especially in the Rockland County area, get vaccinated as soon as possible,” said the department.
The polio vaccine, developed by Dr. Jonas Salk in the 1950s, was heralded as a scientific breakthrough in tackling the global scourge, which is now largely eradicated across the country. The United States has not seen a case of domestically generated polio since 1979, although cases were detected in 1993 and 2013.
Add Comment