Poliovirus Identified In New York City Sewage, Health Officials Say

Breaking Business Poliovirus Identified In New York City Sewage, Health Officials Say Madeline Halpert Forbes Staff New! Follow this author to stay notified about their latest stories. Got it! Aug 12, 2022, 11:12am EDT | Share to Facebook Share to Twitter Share to Linkedin Topline Samples of poliovirus—an illness that can lead to paralysis—have been found in New York City wastewater, health officials said Friday, urging those who are unvaccinated against the disease to get the shot, a month after the first case of polio was identified in New York state for the first time in almost a decade. A Health worker holds a vial of a polio vaccine.

INA Photo Agency/Universal Images Group via Getty Images Key Facts The poliovirus sewage samples likely indicate local circulation of the virus and a risk of transmission, the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene said. The detection of poliovirus in wastewater samples from New York City is “alarming, but not surprising,” New York State Health Commissioner Mary Bassett said, adding the state health department was working with local and federal partners to coordinate a response. Polio is “entirely preventable,” and its resurgence should be “a call to action” to get vaccinated, New York City Health Commissioner Ashwin Vasan said.

The news comes after New York health officials revealed poliovirus had been detected in wastewater in two counties outside of the city, including Rockland County, N. Y. , where an unvaccinated man developed paralysis from a case of polio in July.

Surprising Fact Only 86. 2% of children in New York City between the ages of 6 months to 5 years have received three doses of the polio vaccine, a rate that has fallen since 2019, according to health officials, and which falls behind the 92. 6% of 2-year-old children in the U.

S. who have received three doses of the vaccine. Tangent London health officials launched a vaccination campaign this week to provide polio booster shots to children under 10 after vaccine-derived poliovirus was detected in wastewater from North and East London for the first time in decades.

The amount of virus detected as well as its genetic diversity suggests there has been “some level of virus transmission” that has “gone beyond a close network of a few individuals,” health officials said this week, while noting London has yet to confirm a case of polio. Key Background Polio is a contagious virus transmitted mostly through contact with fecal samples and sometimes through coughing and sneezing. In the early 1950s, before the polio vaccine was created, some 15,000 people a year would develop paralysis from the illness, according to the Centers for Disease Control.

Poliovirus has been eradicated in many countries worldwide thanks to vaccination campaigns, but vaccine-derived cases have been increasing in recent years. Those who have been vaccinated with the live virus can shed it in their stool, where it may spread through wastewater. The virus then has the ability to mutate and infect others—and potentially paralyze them—after contact with the contaminated sewage.

New York health officials shared earlier this month that polioviruses had been found in wastewater in two New York counties, both of which have low vaccination rates : Rockland County, with a vaccination rate of 60. 3%, where a 20-year-old unvaccinated man developed paralysis from a vaccine-derived polio case, and Orange County, where 58. 6% of children under 2 are vaccinated.

New York state has a vaccination rate of 78. 9%. Crucial Quote For every case of polio that leads to paralysis, “hundreds more may be undetected,” Bassett said in a statement.

Further Reading London Officials Launch Polio Booster Campaign For Children After Virus Detected In Sewage (Forbes) First U. S. Polio Case In Nearly A Decade Reported In New York (Forbes) Polioviruses found in wastewater samples in 2 N.

Y. counties, suggesting continued spread (Stat News) Check out my website . Send me a secure tip .

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