Polio Virus detected in wastewater near NYC

• Polio has been detected in the wastewater of yet another county in the New York City area.
• The first case of polio in the United States was identified in July in Rockland County, New York.
• The latest detection involved a wastewater sample collected last month in Nassau County on Long Island.

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said Friday that the state was speeding up its polio-fighting efforts after the virus that causes the potentially fatal disease was found in the wastewater of yet another county in the New York City area.

After the first case of polio in the United States in in a decade was identified in Rockland County, north of the city, in July, health officials began looking for traces of the virus in sewage water. The most recent detection included a wastewater sample collected in Nassau County, Long Island, directly east of the city, last month.

The sample is genetically connected to the Rockland polio case and gives additional proof of community spread, according to state health officials.

The poliovirus has already been found in wastewater in New York City and three counties to the north: Rockland, Orange, and Sullivan.

Hochul proclaimed a state of emergency, allowing EMS personnel, midwives, and pharmacists to dispense polio vaccines and doctors to issue standing orders for the vaccine. Data on immunizations will be used to target vaccination efforts where they are most needed.

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“On polio, we simply cannot roll the dice,” state Health Commissioner Dr. Mary T. Bassett said in a prepared statement. “If you or your child are unvaccinated or are not up to date on immunizations, the potential of paralytic disease is real, and I urge New Yorkers not to take any chance at all.”

All unvaccinated New York citizens, especially children under the age of two, pregnant women, and those who have not completed their vaccine series, should be immunised promptly, according to health officials. They also advocated for boosters for specific groups of people, including as healthcare personnel in impacted areas who treat patients who may have polio.

The statewide polio immunisation rate is 79%, although Rockland, Orange, and Sullivan counties reported lower rates.

Officials have stated that hundreds of people in the state may have contracted polio and are unaware of it. Most polio patients have no symptoms but can still spread the virus for days or weeks.

In New York, the lone verified case was an anonymous young adult who was unvaccinated.

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