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The New York State Health Department confirmed a case of polio on Thursday, the first known infection in the U.S. in nearly a decade.

A resident of Rockland County, a suburb of New York City, tested positive for polio, according to the state health department. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention confirmed the infection.

Health-care providers should look for additional polio cases, state health officials said. The chain of infection that resulted in the New York case is believed to have originated outside the U.S. No cases of polio have originated in the U.S. since 1979, according to the CDC.

The polio strain the individual caught, known as revertant Sabin type 2 virus, suggests the chain of infection began with someone who received the oral polio vaccine, according to the state health department. The oral polio vaccine contains a mild virus strain that is still able to replicate, which means people who receive it can spread the virus to others.

The oral polio vaccine is no longer administered in the U.S., which suggests the chain of transmission began abroad, according to New York health officials. The U.S. uses an inactivated polio vaccine that is administered as a shot in the leg or arm. This vaccine uses a non-replicating virus strain so people who receive it cannot spread the virus to others.

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Originally posted by wtg:

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The New York State Health Department confirmed a case of polio on Thursday, the first known infection in the U.S. in nearly a decade.

A resident of Rockland County, a suburb of New York City, tested positive for polio, according to the state health department. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention confirmed the infection.

Health-care providers should look for additional polio cases, state health officials said. The chain of infection that resulted in the New York case is believed to have originated outside the U.S. No cases of polio have originated in the U.S. since 1979, according to the CDC.

The polio strain the individual caught, known as revertant Sabin type 2 virus, suggests the chain of infection began with someone who received the oral polio vaccine, according to the state health department. The oral polio vaccine contains a mild virus strain that is still able to replicate, which means people who receive it can spread the virus to others.

The oral polio vaccine is no longer administered in the U.S., which suggests the chain of transmission began abroad, according to New York health officials. The U.S. uses an inactivated polio vaccine that is administered as a shot in the leg or arm. This vaccine uses a non-replicating virus strain so people who receive it cannot spread the virus to others.

https://www.cnbc.com/2022/07/2...o-look-for-more.html

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New York state health officials have found indications of additional cases of polio virus in wastewater samples from two different counties, leading them to warn that hundreds of people may be infected with the potentially serious virus.

Just two weeks ago, the New York Health Department reported the nation's first case of polio in almost a decade, in Rockland County, north of New York City. Officials said that case occurred in a previously healthy young adult who was unvaccinated and developed paralysis in their legs. Since then, three positive wastewater samples from Rockland County and four from neighboring Orange County were discovered and genetically linked to the first case, the health department said in a press release on Thursday, suggesting that the polio virus is being spread within local communities. The newest samples were taken from two locations in Orange County in June and July and one location in Rockland County in July.

"Based on earlier polio outbreaks, New Yorkers should know that for every one case of paralytic polio observed, there may be hundreds of other people infected," State Health Commissioner Dr. Mary T. Bassett said. "Coupled with the latest wastewater findings, the Department is treating the single case of polio as just the tip of the iceberg of much greater potential spread. As we learn more, what we do know is clear: the danger of polio is present in New York today."

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The evidence of circulating polioviruses underscores the importance of increasing vaccine uptake in the affected region. That could be a challenge. Rockland County has a large population of Hassidic Jews who resist vaccination for philosophical reasons. This part of New York state experienced a large and protracted measles outbreak in 2018-2019, fueled by vaccine resistance in these communities.

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Genetic analysis of the viruses in the positive wastewater samples in New York was conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and revealed they are linked to the viruses that paralyzed the Rockland County man. His virus, in turn, was discovered to be linked to vaccine-derived viruses detected in sewage in Jerusalem and London.

Vaccine-derived polioviruses come from the oral polio vaccine Albert Sabin developed in the 1950s. The United States stopped using this vaccine in 2000, meaning these viruses had to have made their way to this country in a person or persons infected with them elsewhere.

Sabin’s vaccine was made using live but weakened versions of all three polioviruses, types 1 through 3. Vaccinated children shed the vaccine viruses in their stools and, in places where hygiene levels are not high, the vaccine viruses can spread to other unvaccinated children in a household or neighborhood. Over time, though, if they continue to find unvaccinated children to infect, they can regain the power to paralyze. Biologically the illness they trigger is the same as that caused by wild polio.

Most people who are infected with polio will have no symptoms; some will suffer mild illness. But it is estimated that out of every 1,000 infections, between one and five people will develop neurological disease — either meningitis or some form of paralysis. The latter is typically irreversible.

Since it stopped use of oral vaccine, the United States has exclusively relied on injectable vaccine that is made with inactivated polioviruses. The vaccine viruses in IPV, as it is known, cannot paralyze or transmit from person to person.