The once eradicated polio virus was found in more New York water samples, raising fears of community spread
The New York State Department of Health reported two important revelations for polio on Thursday, including that previously detected cases were genetically linked to vaccine-derived cases found earlier in Israel.
According to the department, more wastewater samples from the Hudson River returned positive polio samples, and the virus had little to no adverse effects on most infected people, but in a small number, could have disastrous consequences, including meningitis and paralysis. It is transmitted by eating or drinking an infected substance.
The samples came from two different sites in Orange County, while the previously detected cases were in Rockland County, in the south. NYSDOH revealed that the virus in the infected person's body has a genetic relationship with the virus found in circulation in the Israeli capital in March, which was obtained from oral vaccines, and something went wrong.
The Rockland case is the first case to originate in the United States since 1979 and the first to be detected in the country since travelers carried the virus in 1993.
"These environmental findings — further indicating potential community transmission — in addition to the cases of paralytic polio found among Rockland County residents, underscore the urgency of immunization of every New York adult and child, especially those in the greater New York metropolitan area," NYSDOH said in a statement Thursday.
In the United States, children receive inactivated poliovirus vaccine, delivered three times by injection at ages 2, 4 and 6. In rare cases, it is not the vaccine that causes polio infection.
According to NBC4 New York, Orange County, where new samples were found, had much lower polio vaccination rates among 59-year-old two-year-olds.
Epidemics in the 19th and 20th centuries disabled millions and killed thousands until the global vaccination campaign after World War II nearly eradicated the virus. However, the recent outbreak has raised concerns.
The deadly poliovirus has reared its head again after it was previously eradicated in much of the world, and in India, Israel is now the capital of the United Kingdom, London.
The poliovirus mainly infects the digestive tract and, like most intestinal diseases, is transmitted by people who are accustomed to poor hygiene and feces contaminating food.
In about 200 cases, the virus spreads to the central nervous system, attacking neurons in the spinal cord and even the brainstem. This can lead to lax muscle weakness or quadriplegia, and if it reaches the lower brain, it can even damage the nerves that control the face, eye focus and breathing.
Up to 5% of children and 30% of adults with polio die, but most patients either have mild symptoms or no symptoms at all.
Polio survivors also often suffer from deformities caused by flaccid muscle paralysis, including shortened or arched arms and legs and horseshoe-toes curled downwards and shortened Achilles tendons until the patient is unable to walk.
The first successful polio vaccine was developed in 1950 by Polish virologist Hilary Kokorowski, based on the weakly attenuated and less viable strains of the virus. Other vaccines followed, including oral liquid forms familiar to people growing up in the late 20th century. Today, most countries prefer vaccinations.
Global vaccination campaigns have nearly wiped out the terrible virus, so much so that the only "wild" cases detected between 2018 and 2022 are in war-torn Afghanistan and neighboring Pakistan.
Notable polio survivors include actors Donald Sutherland and Aaron Ida, as well as British singer Ina Dury. Dury has embarked on a campaign to eradicate polio with the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), but has also shed light on his disability in the song "spastticus autisticus".
