The city authorities New York They warned this Thursday that they detected the polio virus (polio) in the sewers of the big city and that “suggests (that there has been) local transmission”, for which they urged the population to be vaccinated, especially children.
The first case of polio in the United States in a decade was recorded at the end of July in Rockland County, a metropolitan area of the New York city, and the virus was later detected in its wastewater and that of nearby areas.
The person in charge of Health of the Big Apple, Ashwin Vasan, said that now that “polio is circulating” in the community, it is essential that children get vaccinated and that adults who are not protected or have an incomplete guideline also do so.
“Polio can lead to paralysis and even death. We urge unvaccinated New Yorkers to get vaccinated now,” added Vasan, for whom polio is “completely preventable” and its reappearance is a “call to action.”
The risk to New Yorkers is real but the defense is so simple – get vaccinated against polio. With polio circulating in our communities there is simply nothing more essential than vaccinating our children to protect them from this virus. https://t.co/TgXjMACrLZ
— Commissioner Ashwin Vasan, MD, PhD (@NYCHealthCommr) August 12, 2022
Most adults were vaccinated as children, but current childhood vaccinations are declining, with 14% of under-5s unprotected and more than 40% in some neighborhoods, according to data from Manhattan President Mark Levine. .
According to local media, the first case in the US occurred in a Rockland resident: an adult who was not vaccinated, became ill with the virus and suffered from paralysis, possibly infected by a person who received the oral polio vaccine outside the country.
State Health Commissioner Mary Bassett told the media that the finding of the virus in the city’s sewage is “alarming, but not a surprise,” saying that for every case of paralyzed polio identified “there may be hundreds.” undetected.”
Local, state and federal authorities are working to investigate if there are more cases of polio and assess the spread of the virus, precisely at a time when the coronavirus and the emerging monkeypox continue to be dealt with.
In 1988, the World Health Organization launched an international public health campaign with the goal of eradicating polio by 2000, but by 2020 cases were reported in 34 countries, mainly in sub-Saharan Africa and Asia.
Although the numbers have decreased in the last 18 months, some cases have emerged in Ukraine and Israel; polio virus was detected in London sewage in June and in New York in July.
