Health officials identified the virus that causes polio in New York City sewage, suggesting local transmission of the virus, state officials said Friday, urging unvaccinated New Yorkers to get vaccinated.
“The New York Department of Health and the New York State Department of Health have identified poliovirus in sewage in New York City, suggesting local transmission of the virus,” the New York State Department of Health said Friday. city in a statement.
“Polio can lead to paralysis and even death. We urge unvaccinated New Yorkers to get vaccinated now.”
The identification comes weeks after a case of polio in an adult was made public in Rockland County on July 21, marking the nation’s first confirmed case in nearly 10 years.
Earlier this month, health officials said the virus was found in sewage in suburban New York a month before health officials announced the case in Rockland County.
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said at the time that it was unclear whether the virus was actively spreading in New York or elsewhere in the United States.
Evidence of virus in London
There is no cure for polio, which can cause irreversible paralysis in some cases, but it can be prevented with a vaccine that became available in 1955.
New York officials have said they are opening vaccine clinics to help unvaccinated residents get vaccinated.
Inactivated polio vaccine (IPV) is the only polio vaccine given in the United States since 2000, according to the CDC. It is given by injection in the leg or arm, depending on the age of the patient.
On Wednesday, British health authorities announced they would offer a booster dose of polio to children aged one to nine in London, after finding evidence that the virus has spread to several regions of the capital. Britain’s Health Safety Agency said samples of the polio virus were found in sewage from eight London boroughs, but there were no confirmed infections.
Polio is often asymptomatic, and people can spread the virus even when they don’t look sick. But it can produce mild, flu-like symptoms that can take up to 30 days to appear, officials said.
It can affect any age, but the majority of those affected are children three years of age or younger.