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New York polio case stirs fear

AFP . Pomona
04 Sep 2022 00:00:00 | Update: 04 Sep 2022 02:05:19
New York polio case stirs fear

When Brittany Strickland heard that the United States recorded its first polio case in almost a decade, she was “deathly scared” -- the 33-year-old wasn’t vaccinated against the disabling disease.

“My mom was an anti-vaxxer, so I found out that I had never had any polio vaccines as a child,” the designer explained to AFP, after finally receiving a shot this week.

Strickland was inoculated in Pomona, in New York’s Rockland County where the first US polio case since 2013 was identified in July.

Since then, the disease has been detected in wastewater samples in the area, as well as in a neighboring county and in New York City sewage, suggesting the virus is spreading.

The developments are leading experts to fear that polio, once one of the most feared diseases in America but now endemic to just a couple of developing countries, may wreak devastation stateside again.

“I had considered it a virus that was on its way to extinction,” John Dennehy, a virologist at the City University of New York, told AFP.

Health officials are urging anyone not immunized to get vaccinated, with Rockland County offering free shots.

The area, 30 miles (48 kilometers) north of Manhattan, has a polio vaccination rate well below the national average.

Only 60 percent of two-year-olds have received a vaccine, compared to 79 percent statewide, New York’s health department says.

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