Health Department Finds Virus that Causes Polio in NYC Wastewater

By Yehudit Garmaise

New York City health officials have found polio virus in wastewater samples, they said Friday, suggesting the virus is now circulating in the city, nbc4news reported. 

State Health Commissioner Mary Bassett, MD, said that while the circulation of the polio virus in NYC wastewater is “alarming, it is not surprising.”

CDC officials were deployed to Rockland County, after a 20-year-old unvaccinated man who lives there was both infected and paralyzed by the virus, which has not been identified in the US for nearly 10 years.

Rockland County Executive Ed Day, who reported no other confirmed cases, said “Everyone is on the lookout for this.

“It is important to release facts and not promote fear.”

The first major polio epidemic in the United States took place in 1894, and thousands were affected every year until 1953 when medical researcher Dr. Jonas Salk announced he had discovered the vaccine.

Just 26 years after most Americans were vaccinated against polio, in 1979 the US declared that the country had eliminated the disease.

The virus that causes polio, however, can be brought into the country from travelers, as was the case in 1993, when the last American patient infected with polio was identified.