Public health officials announced that the polio virus has been detected in the city’s wastewater and urged vaccination.
The polio virus has been found in New York City’s wastewater in another sign that the disease, which had not been seen in the US in a decade, is quietly spreading among unvaccinated people, health officials said Friday.
The presence of the poliovirus in the city’s wastewater suggests likely local circulation of the virus, the city and New York state health departments said.
“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.”
The announcement came after a case of polio was detected in the US for the first time in 10 years in late July. The case occurred in a young unvaccinated man in Rockland County in New York state, and authorities have said that the case could have originated outside the US.
Wastewater samples collected in June in Rockland and adjacent Orange County were found to contain the virus. Since 1979, no cases of polio have originated in the US, but occurred in incoming travellers.
Polio was once one of the nation’s most feared diseases, with annual outbreaks causing thousands of cases of paralysis. The disease mostly affects children.