First polio case discovered in New York state in nearly a decade

A case of polio has been identified in an unvaccinated adult male in Rockland County, officials said.

The New York State Department of Health and its counterpart in Rockland County have confirmed that the infection was transmitted from someone who received the oral polio vaccine, which has not been administered in the United States since 2000. originated outside the United States, where the oral vaccine is still administered.

“I want to emphasize that this person is no longer contagious,” Rockland County executive director Ed Day said at a news conference Thursday afternoon. “Our efforts are now focused on two things: vaccinations and finding out if anyone else has been affected by this disease.”

Those who have not been vaccinated or have not completed their vaccination course should be vaccinated, officials said. The current polio case poses a very low risk for those already vaccinated against polio: Those who have had all three injections have nearly 100 percent protection.

The person’s symptoms started about a month ago, said Dr. Rockland County Health Commissioner Patricia Schnabel Ruppert at the press conference. The patient presented with “weakness and paralysis,” she said, and the department was notified of the confirmed case on Monday.

“We are now investigating this person’s family and close contacts to assess the risk to the community,” said Dr. Ruppert. She did not share additional information about the patient’s current health status or prognosis.

Although health officials have not disclosed the patient’s gender, local elected officials said he is a man from the Orthodox Jewish community. In 2018 and 2019 there was a measles outbreak in Rockland County concentrated among ultra-Orthodox Jewish people, whose vaccination rates tended to be lower than the wider population. More than 150 people became infected with measles in that outbreak.

The latest case of polio in the United States, in 2013, was with someone who had brought the disease from abroad. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, there hasn’t been a case from the United States since 1979.

The disease was one of the most feared in the country until the 1950s, when the first vaccine was developed.

Sixty percent of Rockland County’s two-year-olds have received all three doses of the polio vaccine, according to state data — a significantly lower rate than the 80 percent rate found in the rest of the state, excluding New York City.

To achieve herd immunity to polio, target vaccination rate is 80 percent, according to the World Health Organization.

Disruptions caused by the Covid-19 pandemic have lowered vaccination rates for routine childhood vaccinations Worldwide and in the United States, according to some studies. Having misinformation and mistrust regarding Covid vaccines also affects vaccination coverage in childrenas more parents have expressed fears about long-standing vaccines.

dr. Amesh A. Adalja, senior scientist at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, said hesitancy with vaccines can give vaccine-derived polio strains “an opportunity to wreak havoc” in a community with large groups of unvaccinated people.

Polio is highly contagious, the health ministry said in a press release. People can spread the disease even when they have no symptoms, such as fatigue, fever, headache, muscle aches, and vomiting. In rare cases, polio cases can lead to paralysis or death.

The oral vaccine is safe and effective and is still given in countries where access to vaccines is more limited. However, people who receive the oral vaccine, which contains a weakened version of the virus, can get rid of the virus.

The ejector feature was initially considered an advantage, said Dr. Adalya.

“It mimics a natural infection, and people shed the virus, the vaccine virus, and that spreads to other people, and then they get immunized that way,” he said. In very rare cases, the virus in the vaccine can mutate as it travels from person to person and lead to paralysis in someone who has not been vaccinated, he said.

The United States uses an injected polio vaccine that contains inactivated virus instead of live virus.

Jesse McKinley reporting contributed.