Tuesday 9 August 2022 10:34 PM CDC deploys team to investigate NY polio outbreak: trends now
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has deployed a team to investigate a polio case in Rockland County, New York, as local officials fear that there could be thousands of undiagnosed cases in the state.
The breadth of the CDC's investigation, how long they will be present or if their findings will ever be made public are not known. Officials present also plan to help distribute shots of the polio vaccine to the Rockland community - which has an extremely low jab rate of only 60 percent.
New York state officials announced the detection of the nation's first polio cases in over a decade in Rockland County in July. The infected man experienced paralysis, but is now recovering at home. In the time since, wastewater surveillance has detected the virus in both Rockland and in nearby Orange county.
The detection of at least one symptomatic case likely means there are others elsewhere, though, and that is near-confirmed by the findings in Orange county. Because in many cases the virus is either asymptomatic or so mild a person will not realize it is polio, one severe case could mean there are many others that are more mild.
One Rockland officials warned Monday that there could even be 'thousands' of cases circulating in the state.
Officials in New York are warning that there may already be 'hundreds' of New Yorkers infected with polio after at least three wastewater samples were detected across two counties just outside of New York City, Rockland and Orange (pictured)
Common symptoms of polio include high temperatures, extreme fatigue, headaches, vomiting, stiff neck and muscle pain
'There isn't just one case of polio if you see a paralytic case. The incidence of paralytic polio is less than one percent,' Dr Patricia Schnabel Ruppert,health commissioner for Rockland County, told BBC.
'There isn't just one case of polio if you see a paralytic case. The incidence of paralytic polio is less than one percent,' Dr Patricia Schnabel Ruppert, health commissioner for Rockland County, told BBC.
'Most cases are asymptomatic or mildly symptomatic, and those symptoms are often missed.
'So there are hundreds, perhaps even thousands of cases that have occurred in order for us to see a paralytic case.'
The CDC is working to learn more about this outbreak, and even to prevent more cases by providing jabs to the local community.
The two afflicted counties so far, Rockland and Orange, both are among those with the lowest vaccination rates in America at around 60 percent each.
Dr Mary Bassett (pictured), New York health commissioner, warns that there may be hundreds of undetected polio cases in the state
'CDC continues to collaborate with the New York State Department of Health to investigate a recent case of paralytic polio in an unvaccinated individual from Rockland County,' the agency wrote to ABC.
'These efforts include ongoing testing of wastewater samples to monitor for poliovirus and deploying a small team to New York to assist on the ground with the investigation and vaccination efforts.'
A vaccinated person has little to worry about, and the U.S. has vaccine coverage of over 90 percent.
Many had to receive the jabs to go to primary school. Inoculation lasts for life and there is no booster required for a person to stay safe from the virus.
Ruppert is not the only expert to sound the alarm about a breadth of cases in the state.
'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,' Dr Mary Bassett, the state's health commissioner said last week.
'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. We must meet this moment by ensuring that adults, including pregnant people, and young children by 2 months of age are up
