The first US case of polio since 2013 has been detected in New York

A case of polio has been reported in New York, the first case of the virus in nearly a decade.

The first case of polio in USA since 2013

A resident of Rockland County, about 36 miles north of New York City, has been diagnosed with the case, the first case of polio since 2013, according to state and county health departments.

The patient is no longer considered contagious but has developed paralysis, the AP reports. Tests performed by a state health department laboratory, and confirmed by the CDC, showed that the patient had previously received the oral polio vaccine, which is no longer administered in the United States.

Inactivated vaccines, which use dead germs of the disease, have been the only polio vaccines approved in the United States since 2000. This may mean that the patient picked up the strain in a country where oral polio vaccines are still given. According to the CDC report, there have been no reported cases of polio in the United States since 1979.

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The New York Department of Health and the CDC recommend that people who have not received the polio vaccine get vaccinated.

“Vaccines have protected our health against old and new viruses for decades,” said New York City Health Commissioner Dr. Ashwin Vasan. “The reality is that safe and effective vaccines are urgently needed, and we need New Yorkers to protect themselves against completely preventable viruses like polio.”

When was polio vaccine introduced?

The polio vaccine was introduced in 1955, and due to high vaccination rates, cases declined significantly in the late 1950s and early 1960s. According to the World Health Organization, only 175 cases were reported worldwide in 2019.

Symptoms of Polio

The highly contagious virus can cause debilitating damage to the spine and muscles and is usually spread orally, through the intestines or saliva. About 72 percent of people with CD will have no symptoms, while about 25 percent will experience flu-like symptoms, such as nausea, fever, and fatigue.

In rare cases, the victim experiences more severe and life-threatening symptoms, such as stroke (0.5%) or meningitis (4%), a spinal cord infection, according to the CDC.

Infected people can take up to 30 days to develop symptoms, and can spread during that time, the New York State Department of Health said.