Home » News » Wastewater Testing for Polio – NBC New York (47)

Wastewater Testing for Polio – NBC New York (47)

NEW YORK — Philadelphia and Oakland County, Michigan, join a small list of U.S. cities looking for signs of polio infection in wastewater, U.S. health officials said Wednesday.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said communities will test wastewater for polio for at least four months. New York state communities began testing earlier this year after a man was diagnosed with paralytic polio outside New York City.

CDC officials say they have spoken to other communities about beginning wastewater testing for polio as well. They focus on cities and counties with low polio vaccination coverage and those where travelers have visited New York communities where polio has been found.

Officials say identifying the virus in wastewater can help a city or county accelerate and target vaccination campaigns.

Health officials around the world have been using wastewater to monitor COVID-19 outbreaks. The CDC is currently receiving wastewater sampling data for the coronavirus from all 50 states. This year, commercial labs began testing wastewater for mpox, formerly known as monkeypox.

Next year, health officials in Houston and Colorado plan to begin testing wastewater for various other health threats, including antibiotic-resistant germs, influenza, respiratory syncytial virus, norovirus and other insects. If the pilot goes well, larger tests will be done in other parts of the country, CDC officials said.

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