379 Polio Vaccines Given In Rockland After Resident Left Paralyzed

ROCKLAND COUNTY, NY — Across Rockland County, 379 polio vaccines have been administered since a case of the virus — the first in the United States in 10 years — was discovered in a resident.

The patient, a young adult, was infected about a month ago and has been left paralyzed. The case was confirmed and Rockland officials were notified July 18.

Local, state and federal health officials are investigating the case, which appears to have been brought to the United States by someone who had received an oral polio vaccine containing live virus. Live-virus vaccines haven't been given in the USA since 2000.

A check of wastewater samples from Rockland County Sewer District #1 — which serves large portions of Ramapo and Clarkstown and some parcels of Orangetown — from June 2022, revealed detectable polio virus, county health officials said.

"This may have been from the singular confirmed case so the significance of this is unknown. It was NOT detected in the Orangetown Sewer District area during the same period," they said in a statement.

Health investigators from the county, state and federal Centers for Disease Control are continuing to collect and conduct tests of wastewater samples to determine if the virus is circulating. This determination may take time. Results will be disclosed as they become available, county officials said.

Another polio vaccine clinic — the third offered by the Rockland County Department of Health — will be held from 10 a.m. to noon Friday. Rockland County residents can pre-register for a free appointment here or call 845-238-1956 to schedule. Walk-ins will also be accepted at the Pomona Health Complex, 50 Sanatorium Road, Pomona (Building A).

The health department vaccinated 71 people against polio at its first two clinics, including 39 people over 65, 30 people aged 20 to 64, and two people under 20. Another 308 polio vaccines have been administered by clinics and doctors across the county since July 21, officials said.

Anyone who has not been vaccinated against polio, once the terror of families across the United States and still a global scourge, is at risk.

Polio spreads mostly from person to person or through contaminated water. It can infect a person’s spinal cord, causing paralysis and possibly permanent disability and death.

Pregnant women who are unvaccinated, and anyone who has not completed their polio vaccine series, or is concerned they have might have been exposed, should get vaccinated. Individuals who are already vaccinated but are at risk of exposure should receive a booster, which will also be available at the clinics.

The focus remains people who are unvaccinated or behind on their 4-dose polio vaccine series. Circulation of this disease only happens or continues if overall vaccination rates remain low, officials said.

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.

In 1979, polio was declared eliminated in the U.S., meaning there was no longer routine spread.
A multi-year global health campaign, assisted by volunteers and funding from Rotary International, has since ended routine spread almost everywhere, though polio is still endemic in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

However, numerous countries in Africa, the Middle East and Asia have also reported cases in recent years.

Rarely, travelers have brought polio infections into the U.S. The last such case was in 2013, when a 7-month-old who had recently moved to the U.S. from India was diagnosed in San Antonio, Texas, according to federal health officials. That child also had the type of polio found in the live form of vaccine used in other countries.

There are two types of polio vaccines. The U.S. and many other countries use shots made with an inactivated version of the virus. But some countries where polio has been more of a recent threat use a weakened live virus that is given to children as drops in the mouth. In rare instances, the weakened virus can mutate into a form capable of sparking new outbreaks.

Continued circulation in settings where population immunization rates remain low means the weakened live virus can spread more easily to people who are unvaccinated against polio and who come in contact with stool or respiratory secretions, such as from a sneeze, of an infected person. These may cause illness, including paralysis.

Since OPV is not administered in the U.S., this suggests that the virus that caused the case in Rockland County may have originated in a location outside of the country where OPV is administered.

However, it does not necessarily mean that’s where it was transmitted.

Up to 95 percent of people infected with polio have no symptoms but can still spread the virus. The sick resident did not travel outside the country during the incubation window, officials said.

In this new case — which remains the only case confirmed — RCDOH was alerted by Centers for Disease Control and New York State Department of Health officials July 18.

NYSDOH and CDC said this polio case was transmitted from an individual who received the oral polio vaccine.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

SEE ALSO: Putnam County Government Responds To Polio In Rockland County