For the past 4 decades, polio has been a problematic ailment largely affecting third-world countries. In the United States, there has been only one reported case in the past decade and the States claimed to be a polio-free country around 1979. But the recent cases of polio emerged as a counter to the claim and the inclined activity of the virus has left many alarmed throughout the United States. Following the incidents, the government declared an emergency in New York State on September 9.
Mary Basset, The New York State Health Commissioner, stated in a press conference
If you or your child are unvaccinated or not up to date with vaccinations, the risk of paralytic disease is real.
The main reasons for the spread of the virus as officials have reflected are the wastewater samples which tested affirmative for the virus within New York and its four adjoining counties. Up to this point, stately, only one case came into light which is quite alarming as there has been no cases of Polio in the entire country for the past ten years.
The first case was an unvaccinated man from Rockland who suffered paralysis from the poliovirus. This forced researchers to test wastewaters in the New York state. The reason for such a detailed investigation is given by Mary Basset saying that
for every one case of paralytic polio observed, there may be hundreds of other people infected.
Samples from Orange county and Sullivan county have already tested positive for the virus. After that, New York State has been declared an emergency state for; the third time in 2022_ following the monkeypox and coronavirus emergencies.
The state of emergency will increase the provision of polio vaccines and health care measures.
According to official data collected in the United States, 93% of children aged between 1-5 have received their 3 mandatory polio vaccines.
