Washington: The risk of polio virus infection has increased in New York. New York officials have warned that hundreds of residents are contracting the devastating polio. The virus has been found in dirty water in the county of the state. State surveillance detected the presence of poliovirus in two separate areas of Orange County in June-July. The place is about an hour away from New York City. The warning comes within a week of the discovery of polio cases in Rockland County. The virus was also found in Rockland’s wastewater last month.
Officials say the possibility of the virus spreading quickly and on a large scale is unlikely but not impossible. High standards of water treatment are adopted in the US. Due to which the chances of a person getting sick by drinking this polluted water are very less. Polio is either mild or asymptomatic in most cases. So it is likely that there will be hundreds of cases that will never be detected. Case investigations in Orange County confirm the possibility that the virus may have spread here before the Rockland case was discovered.
However, on the other hand, the state health commissioner Dr. Mary Bassett cited previous polio outbreaks as saying that New Yorkers needed to be careful. He said New Yorkers should be aware that each case of paralytic polio can infect hundreds of others. The department is considering it as a possible spill based on the new wastewater findings. “Based on the data, we believe there is a polio risk in New York,” the department said.
People who have received the vaccine are protected
The health department here has said that people who have received the polio vaccine need not worry. And more than 90 percent vaccine coverage is available in the US. You must be vaccinated to go to primary school. Vaccination is lifelong and does not require a booster to protect a person from the virus. Officials are asking people to get vaccinated to prevent the virus from spreading. 59 percent of people in Orange County have been vaccinated against polio. While 60 percent of people in Rockland have been vaccinated against polio.