The health authorities have found polio infection in the waste water in seven counties north of New York City. Only one person has been diagnosed with infection, but there is great fear that the contagious disease is back after many years.
The person who is infected and has developed paralysis is an unvaccinated adult in Rockland County. The person is the first to receive detected polio in decades in the United States.
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The state’s head of health, Mary T. Bassett, says that there is a risk of hundreds more people carrying the infection, and that it is important that all adults, not least pregnant women, and young people have updated their vaccinations.
Polio vaccination is mandatory for all children in New York state, but in some areas control is weak. Both Rockland and the neighboring county of Orange are known to have many vaccine opponents, with only about 60 percent vaccinated.
– Extremely painful
Declared extinct
Polio was once one of America’s most feared diseases, but was declared eradicated in 1979, over 20 years after an effective vaccine became available.
The World Health Organization (WHO) declared Europe polio-free in 2002.
In June, the virus that causes polio was discovered in a greater number of sewage samples in Londonbut no cases of infection were confirmed.
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Highly contagious
According to The pocket doctor Polio is a highly contagious viral disease that can cause severe paralysis.
Most people who become infected have no symptoms, but they can spread the infection for several weeks. A small proportion of those infected become paralyzed, and 10-15 percent of them die.
The virus enters the body through the mouth by eating food that has been prepared by unclean hands, or by coughing, and multiplies in the intestine and can spread from there to other organs, primarily the central nervous system.
There is no treatment, but the vaccine is considered to be very effective.
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