WATERTOWN, New York (WWNY) – Governor Kathy Hochul has declared a state of emergency over polio to step up vaccination rates in New York.
It comes after the virus was detected in the sewage of a fourth county in the New York City area.
Health officials began checking for signs of the virus in sewage water after the first case of polio in the United States in nearly a decade was identified in July in Rockland County, which is north of the city.
The latest detection involved a wastewater sample collected last month in Nassau County on Long Island, directly east of the city.
The lone confirmed case in New York involved an unvaccinated young adult who suffered paralysis.
Under the state of emergency, the network of professionals who can administer the polio vaccine is expanded to include pharmacists, midwives and EMS workers.
State health officials urge the unvaccinated to get their shots immediately.
The state of emergency is in effect until October 9.
Polio was once one of the nation’s most feared diseases, with annual outbreaks causing thousands of cases of paralysis. The disease mostly affects children.
Vaccines became available starting in 1955, and a national vaccination campaign cut the annual number of U.S. cases to less than 100 in the 1960s and fewer than 10 in the 1970s, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
A small percentage of people who contract polio suffer paralysis. The disease is fatal for 5-10% of those paralyzed.
All schoolchildren in New York are required to have a polio vaccine, but Rockland and Orange counties are both known as centers of vaccine resistance.
Most people infected with polio have no symptoms but can still give the virus to others for days or weeks. Vaccination offers strong protection, and authorities urged people who haven’t gotten the shots to seek one immediately.
Based on past outbreaks, it is possible that hundreds of people in the state have gotten polio and don’t know it, officials said.
According to the CDC’s most recent childhood vaccination data, about 93% of 2-year-olds had received at least three doses of polio vaccine. But the rate is only 80% in New York state and is far lower in the area around where the polio case was reported — just 60% in Rockland County and 59% in Orange County, according to state data.
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