On Friday, state authorities said health officials had identified the polio virus in New York City wastewater, indicating local transmission of the virus, and urged unvaccinated New Yorkers to get vaccinated.
“The New York City Department of Health and the New York State Department of Health identified poliovirus in New York City wastewater,
The city’s health department said in a statement Friday, indicating local transmission of the virus.
“Polio can lead to paralysis and even death. We are urging unvaccinated New Yorkers to get vaccinated now.”
The identification comes weeks after an adult case of polio was announced on July 21 in Rockland County, marking the first confirmed case in the country in nearly 10 years.
Earlier this month, health officials said the virus was found in sewage in a New York City suburb a month before health officials there announced the Rockland County case.
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said at the time that it was not clear whether the virus was actively spreading in New York or elsewhere in the United States.
Evidence of a virus in London
There is no cure for polio, which can cause irreversible paralysis in some cases, but it can be prevented with a vaccine supplied in 1955.
New York officials have said they will open vaccine clinics to help unvaccinated residents get their vaccines.
The inactivated polio vaccine (IPV) is the only polio vaccine given in the United States since 2000, according to the CDC. It is given by injection into the leg or arm, depending on the age of the patient.
British health authorities announced, on Wednesday, that they will provide a booster dose of polio to children aged 1 to 9 years in London, after finding evidence that the virus is spreading in multiple areas of the capital. Britain’s Health Security Agency said samples of the polio virus had been found in wastewater in eight London boroughs, but there were no confirmed infections.
Polio is often asymptomatic and people can transmit the virus even when they do not appear ill. But it can produce
Officials said mild flu-like symptoms can take up to 30 days to appear.
It can strike at any age but the majority of those affected are children aged three years and younger.
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