UNITED STATES: On Thursday, the New York State Health Department recorded its first ever polio case in Rockland County outside New York City, making this discovery one of the first identified polio cases in the country in nearly a decade.
The health department also revealed details of the patient: a person living in Rockland County, about 48 kilometers north of Manhattan, had tested positive for the highly contagious disease.
According to health officials, the latest case was “indicative of a transmission chain from an individual who received the oral polio vaccine (OPV).” The State health department also stated, “This suggests that the virus may have originated in a location outside of the US where OPV is registered since revertant strains cannot emerge from inactivated vaccines.”
According to the CDC (Centre’s for Disease Control and Prevention), the last recorded polio case in the US can be traced back to 2013, and the previous naturally occurring cases in America were reported back in 1979.
Rockland County Health Commissioner Patricia Schnabel Ruppert stated that the county was closely monitoring the situation and was in contact with the New York State Department of Health and the CDC “to respond to this emerging public issue to protect the health and well-being of county residents.”
In the wake of such a case, health department officials have urged local residents to get the polio shot and pressed healthcare providers to keep track of other suspected cases. The oral polio vaccine was discontinued in the US in 2000.
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