NEW YORK — New York well being officers on Thursday reported a polio case, the primary within the U.S. in practically a decade.
Officers didn’t instantly supply particulars on who the Rockland County resident was, whether or not the particular person was vaccinated or their present situation.
State officers mentioned it appeared the particular person had a vaccine-derived pressure of the virus, maybe from somebody who obtained stay vaccine — accessible in different international locations, however not the U.S. — and unfold it.
Polio was as soon as one of many nation’s most feared ailments, with annual outbreaks inflicting hundreds of circumstances of paralysis — lots of them in youngsters.
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Vaccines grew to become accessible beginning in 1955, and nationwide vaccination marketing campaign reduce the annual variety of circumstances to lower than 100 within the Sixties and fewer than 10 within the Nineteen Seventies, based on the CDC.
In 1979, polio was declared eradicated within the U.S., which means there was not routine unfold of the virus within the nation. Not often, vacationers with polio have introduced infections into the U.S., with the final such case in 2013.
U.S. youngsters are nonetheless routinely vaccinated towards polio. Federal officers advocate 4 doses: to be given at 2 months of age; 4 months; at 6 to 18 months; and at age 4 by way of 6 years. Some states require solely three doses.
In response to the CDC’s most up-to-date childhood vaccination information, about 93% of 2-year-olds had obtained at the least three doses of polio vaccine.
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Polio spreads principally from individual to individual or by way of contaminated water. It may infect an individual’s spinal twine, inflicting paralysis and presumably everlasting incapacity and demise. The illness principally impacts youngsters.
Polio is endemic in Afghanistan and Pakistan, though quite a few international locations in Africa, the Center East and Asia have additionally reported circumstances lately.
Final month, well being officers in Britain warned dad and mom to ensure their youngsters have been vaccinated after the polio virus was present in London sewage samples. No circumstances of paralysis have been reported.
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