This Friday, health officials revealed that Polio has been detected in New York City wastewater, suggesting local circulation of the virus.
New York State Health Commissioner Dr. Mary Bassett said local and federal health officials are aggressively assessing how far polio has spread in the city and in New York State as she labels the findings alarming. “For every one case of paralytic polio identified, hundreds more may be undetected,” Bassett said. “The best way to keep adults and children polio-free is through safe and effective immunization.”
“The risk to New Yorkers is real but the defense is so simple — get vaccinated against polio,” New York City Health Commissioner Dr. Ashwin Vasan also said in a statement. “With polio circulating in our communities there is simply nothing more essential than vaccinating our children to protect them from this virus, and if you’re an unvaccinated or incompletely vaccinated adult, please choose now to get the vaccine. Polio is entirely preventable and its reappearance should be a call to action for all of us.”
Following the news, Mayor Eric Adams said Friday on CNN how they’re dealing with COVID-19, Monkeypox, and now polio: “We are dealing with a trifecta,” “COVID is still very much here. Polio, we have identified polio in our sewage, and we’re still dealing with the monkeypox crisis. But the team is there. And we’re coordinating and we’re addressing the threats as they come before us, and we’re prepared to deal with them with the assistance of Washington, D.C.”
BREAKING: The virus that causes polio has been found in New York City's wastewater, weeks after a case of polio was found in Rockland County, health officials said. The presence of the poliovirus suggests wider spread of the virus among the unvaccinated. https://t.co/Dd3ZHv0o3w
— The Associated Press (@AP) August 12, 2022
Last month, New York health officials reported the country’s first case of polio in nearly a decade. At the time, offinals shared that a young adult in Rockland County developed paralysis in their legs. It was noted that they were not vaccinated against the virus.
More On Polio
Officials say that Polio can lead to paralysis of the arms and legs, and can be fatal due to paralysis of the muscles used to breathe or swallow. While most people infected with the virus do not usually experience symptoms, in some cases they can experience flu-like symptoms, including sore throat, fever, tiredness, nausea and stomach pain.