ALBANY, NY — The polio virus has been detected in sewage samples from suburban county near New York where an unvaccinated adult recently contracted the life-threatening disease, but health officials said Tuesday they don’t identified no additional cases.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said the virus was detected in sewage samples taken in early June in Rockland County, where authorities announced the first case of polio in the United States on July 21. in nearly a decade.
The unidentified young adult had a strain of the virus that has since been genetically linked to samples found in sewage from Rockland County, as well as samples from London and the Jerusalem area.
The CDC said in a prepared statement that the New York City sewage sample shows there may be more people in the community shedding the virus.
“However, it is important to note that we do not have enough information at this time to determine whether the virus is actively spreading in New York or elsewhere in the United States, and no additional cases have been identified,” according to the CDC.
Health officials said the patient had acquired a “vaccine-derived” strain of the virus, meaning it likely came from someone who had been inoculated with a live vaccine – available in other countries, but not in the United States. live virus can transmit it to other people who have not been vaccinated.
New York health officials said they could not say conclusively whether the Rockland County samples were from the patient, who developed symptoms in June.
As for the broader implications, the Global Polio Eradication Initiative said in a statement on Friday that genetic and epidemiological investigations are trying “to determine the possible spread of the virus and the potential risk associated with these various isolates. detected in different places around the world”.
Polio, once one of the nation’s most feared diseases, was declared eliminated in the United States in 1979, more than two decades after vaccines became available.
Its discovery in the populous northern suburbs of New York sparked a local vaccination campaign.
“Given how quickly polio can spread, now is the time for every adult, parent and guardian to get themselves and their children vaccinated as soon as possible,” said the NIHB Health Commissioner. New York State, Dr. Mary T. Bassett.
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