Recently, New York declared a state of emergency over polio in an effort to boost vaccination rates after evidence of the virus’s spread mounted when it was found in wastewater samples in Nassau County on Long Island.
The New York State Health Commissioner Mary Basset in August 2022 said that that the state health department is “treating the single case of polio as just the tip of the iceberg of much greater potential spread".
She added, "Based on earlier polio outbreaks, New Yorkers should know that for every one case of paralytic polio observed, there may be hundreds of other people infected."
ALSO READ: USA: New York declares the state of emergency over polio
University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus's professor of Immunology and Microbiology Rosemary Rochford explains a single case of polio reflects a larger potential spread of the virus because most people infected either don’t show any symptoms or have a very mild illness with symptoms similar to the flu.
Adding on, Rochford explained even without symptoms, an infected person is still excreting virus in their feces, which means they can be a source of infection to others.
The polio declined in the US and globally due to the direct result of the introduction of vaccines and the willingness of the public to accept them. With the World Health Organisation, in partnership with Rotary International, the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention and other national governments, launched the Global Polio Eradication Initiative in 1998, there were still an estimated 350,000 children with polio in 125 countries. In 2021, there were only six reported cases.
Now with a single case reported in the US, the health officials are recommending vaccinations through routine childhood vaccinations. Though, the CDC does recommend that anyone who has not been vaccinated against polio virus get vaccinated, including adults.
With PTI inputs.
