New York: The possible spread of Poliovirus has disturbed the New York State as Federal health officials have arrived in New York over concerns that polio may be spreading, according to the Inside Edition digital.
The virus has been found in multiple wastewater samples. The officials with the New York State Department of Health are urging unvaccinated adults and children to get vaccinated to protect themselves against polio.
Bill Gates, whose foundation has been funding polio vaccines, has also warned that the disease’s reemergence in New York is a threat to us all
Talking to Twitter Bill Gates said: News that polio has been detected in New York wastewater samples is an urgent reminder: until we #EndPolio for good, it remains a threat to us all. The global eradication strategy must be fully supported to protect people everywhere.”
The resurgence of the virus is disturbing New York State. According to local health authorities, “there could be hundreds or even thousands of undiagnosed cases of ‘overwhelming’ infection,” Rockland County Health Commissioner Patricia Schnabel Robert, where it was reported last month, explained to the BBC issue.
An unvaccinated man reported polio. His infection appears to be genetically related to traces of the polio virus found in wastewater in London and Jerusalem. In episodes that followed Countries were asked to increase vaccination rates.
According to KTBS, a polio case identified in New York last month is “just the very, very tip of the iceberg” and an indication there “must be several hundred cases in the community circulating,” a senior official with the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention told CNN.
The case was found in Rockland County, which has a stunningly low polio vaccination rate. Dr. José Romero, director of the CDC’s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, noted that the majority of people with polio don’t have symptoms and so can spread the virus without knowing it.
“There are a number of individuals in the community that have been infected with poliovirus. They are shedding the virus,” he said. “The spread is always a possibility because the spread is going to be silent.”
On Aug. 4, New York health authorities announced they had detected polio in wastewater samples from two counties north of New York City.
A few days back, the Federal health authorities sent a small team to New York to investigate the state’s one positive case of polio, the first in the country since 2013.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) deployment to the state comes after health officials revealed on July 21 that a 20-year-old man from Rockland County tested positive for the disease.
