ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — The polio virus has been detected in more sewage samples taken north of New York City, this time from a county adjacent to another in which an unvaccinated adult recently contracted the disease.
Poliovirus was found in sewage collected in June and July at two Orange County sites, indicating the virus may be circulating in the community.
Orange County health officials reported Thursday that they had no confirmed cases in their suburban and rural county.
“It is important to note that although poliovirus was detected in sewage, it does not unequivocally mean that the disease is actively circulating in the county,” Orange County Health Commissioner Dr. Irina Gelman said in a statement.
The findings were announced the same week that health officials said they had detected the virus in sewage samples from Rockland County, where officials last month announced the first case of polio in the United States in nearly a decade.
Gelman said that people who receive a polio vaccine that uses a live, weakened version of the virus can transmit poliovirus for some time.
The United States and many other countries use vaccines with an inactivated version of the virus.
Polio, once one of the nation’s most feared diseases, was declared eradicated in the United States in 1979, more than two decades after vaccines became available.
Orange County wastewater samples were initially collected at municipal wastewater treatment plants for COVID-19 testing.
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