Public health officials in New York state on Thursday reported a case of poliomyelitis, better known as “polio,” the first to be detected in the United States in nearly a decade.
Updated yesterday at 4:56 p.m.
The infected person, an unvaccinated adult, was then in Rockland County, a suburb of New York, several American media reported. This is the first case of polio detected in the United States since 2013.
The disease would have been transmitted to him by another adult, this one vaccinated, but by oral route, a method which has not been used in the United States since the year 2000. Public health authorities therefore suspect that this person has contracted the virus outside the United States.
Polio is a highly contagious disease, says the Quebec government website. It is transmitted through stools or secretions from the nose and throat of an infected person. The poliomyelitis virus can also be caught by drinking water or eating contaminated food.
There is no cure for poliomyelitis. However, vaccination can protect against this disease. Moreover, it has been eradicated from most countries thanks to vaccination, it persists in certain regions of the world, notably in Nigeria and Afghanistan.
Rockland County Health Commissioner Patricia Schnabel Ruppert said officials are “working with local partners and community leaders to alert the public and make polio vaccine doses available,” according to what reported the media Politico.