August 12, 2022 – The CDC has detected a polio case in New York in the last month, which could indicate up to several hundred cases within the community.
A 20-year-old man in Rockland County developed symptoms of polio in late July. He was unvaccinated, and no other cases have been reported yet. Rockland County is historically a vaccine-resistant area, where the polio vaccination rate is 20% lower than the general U.S. population.
José Romero, director of the CDC’s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, told CNN that the initial case could be the “tip of the iceberg.” He went on to say, “There are a number of individuals in the community that have been infected with poliovirus. They are shedding the virus. The spread is always a possibility because the spread is going to be silent.”
Per The Hill, the New York State Health Department said that the CDC had detected poliovirus through wastewater surveillance. Six samples were collected from Rockland County during a two-month period and were genetically linked to the virus that infected the 20-year-old Rockland man.
The CDC deployed a team to investigate the recent polio case shortly after the poliovirus was through wastewater surveillance.