According to the department, more wastewater samples from the Hudson River have returned samples positive for polio, a virus that in most infected people will have few ill effects, but in a small minority can have disastrous consequences, including meningitis and paralysis. It is spread by eating or drinking infected material.
The samples came from two different locations in Orange County, while the previously found case was in Rockland County, to the south. NYSDOH has revealed that the virus in the infected person was genetically related to that found circulating in the Israeli capital in March, which was derived from an oral vaccination gone wrong.
The Rockland case was the first to originate in the United States since 1979, and the first detected in the country since 1993, when a traveler arrived with the virus.
“These environmental findings - which further indicate potential community spread - in addition to the paralytic polio case identified among a Rockland County resident, underscore the urgency of every New York adult and child getting immunized against polio, especially those in the greater New York metropolitan area,” NYSDOH said in a Thursday statement.
In the US, children receive the inactivated poliovirus vaccine, which is delivered via injection, three times, at ages 2, 4 and 6. It is not the vaccine that in rare cases can produce polio infections.
According to NBC4 New York, Orange County, where the new samples were found, has a much lower polio vaccination rate among two-year-olds - 59.45% - than the New York state average of 79.1%.