NEW YORK – A resident of Rockland County, New York, has tested positive for polio, the state said Thursday, in what could be one of the first US cases of the once-dreaded childhood disease.
New York state health officials said the infected person appears to have been infected by someone who received the oral polio vaccine (OPV), which has not been given in the United States since 2000.
“This suggests the virus may have originated from a location outside of the US where OPV is administered, as reverted strains cannot arise from inactivated vaccines,” the New York State Department of Health said in a statement.
According to the CDCthe last case of polio in the United States that originated here was in 1979. The last case presented by a traveler was in 1993.
Rockland County health officials said they learned of the infection Monday and the victim is an unvaccinated adult who exhibited symptoms of paralysis. They are conducting surveillance on family members and close contacts.
“In this case, we don’t know the actual source of the contraction,” Dr. Patricia Schnabel Ruppert, the county health commissioner, told a news conference.
The county will hold a polio vaccination roundup Friday from 10 a.m. to noon at the Pomona Health Complex, located at 50 Sanatorium Road in Pomona, and again there Monday from 1 p.m. at 4pm (Click here to pre-register).
The CDC generally recommends that children receive four doses of the vaccine: at two months, four months, six to 18 months, and four to six years of age.
“Most adults do not need the polio vaccine because they were already vaccinated as children,” the CDC says, except those who travel to high-risk countries, laboratory workers handling the virus, or health care workers. that treat those who may have the virus.
SInNTOMAS OF POLIOMELITIS
The virus that causes polio is considered very contagious and people can spread it even if they are not sick. People are thought to be contagious for up to two weeks after symptoms develop.
The health department describes the symptoms this way:
Symptoms, which can be mild and flu-like (fatigue, fever, headache, stiffness, muscle pain, vomiting), can take up to 30 days to appear, during which time an infected person can spread the virus. virus to other people. Although rare, some cases of polio can lead to paralysis or death.”
Before vaccines, polio paralyzed more than 15,000 people a year in the United States alone.
The World Health Organization (WHO) says that two of the three known strains of wild poliovirus are considered globally eradicated, while the third type continues to affect mainly Pakistan and Afghanistan. In the Rockland County case, the infection is from a mutated oral vaccine strain rather than a wild-type case of the virus.
This is a developing story.
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