50°
The case was confirmed in Rockland County, the New York State Department of Health announced Thursday, July 21.
State and county health officials said they were advising medical practitioners and healthcare providers to be on the lookout for additional cases.
"Based on what we know about this case, and polio in general, the Department of Health strongly recommends that unvaccinated individuals get vaccinated or boosted with the FDA-approved IPV polio vaccine as soon as possible," State Health Commissioner Mary Bassett said.
"The polio vaccine is safe and effective, protecting against this potentially debilitating disease, and it has been part of the backbone of required, routine childhood immunizations recommended by health officials and public health agencies nationwide."
On Friday, July 22, Rockland County will host a polio vaccination clinic at the Pomona Health Complex (Building A) at 50 Sanatorium Road in Pomona from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m.
A second clinic at the same location will be held on Monday, July 25, from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m.
Anyone who is unvaccinated – including those who are pregnant – has not completed their polio vaccine series, or are concerned they have might have been exposed, should get vaccinated at the clinics, health officials said.
Residents can pre-register for a free appointment on the Rockland County Health Department’s website or call 845-238-1956.
Polio is a highly contagious, viral disease that can affect the nervous system and cause muscle weakness. It typically enters the body through the mouth, usually from hands contaminated with fecal matter of an infected person.
Respiratory and oral-to-oral transmission through saliva may also occur, officials said.
Symptoms of polio include fatigue, fever, headache, stiffness, muscle pain, and vomiting, and can take up to 30 days to appear, during which time an infected person can be transmitting the virus to others.
Health officials said while rare, some polio cases can result in paralysis or death.
The Rockland County case was identified through sequencing performed by the Wadsworth Center, the health department's public health laboratory, and confirmed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Based on that sequencing, health officials concluded the case involved a transmission chain from an individual who received the oral polio vaccine (OPV), which is no longer authorized or administered in the US, where only the inactivated polio vaccine (IPV) has been given since 2000.
Officials said that suggests that the virus may have originated in a location outside of the US where OPV is administered.
Once considered one of the most feared diseases in the country, polio was virtually eliminated from the US following the development of vaccines in the 1950s.
No cases of polio have originated in the US since 1979 and the last time the virus was brought into the country by travelers was in 1993, according to the CDC.
The last known case in the US was in 2013.
"Polio is a serious but preventable virus," said state Senator Elijah Reichlin-Melnick, whose district district includes most of Rockland County.
"Those who are vaccinated, including all who have had their polio vaccine as part of the required immunization schedule for schoolchildren, are at lower risk of contracting polio.
"If you are not already vaccinated, I encourage you to refer to the public health authorities and schedule a vaccination appointment as soon as you can, either at your healthcare provider or at one of the county-run clinics as early as tomorrow.”
Click here to follow Daily Voice Pelham and receive free news updates.
