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New York declares a state of emergency over polio

State health officials hope the declaration will help boost vaccination rates in counties where poliovirus has been detected in wastewater.

This 2014 illustration made available by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention depicts a polio virus particle. On Thursday, July 21, 2022, New York health officials reported a polio case, the first in the U.S. in nearly a decade. (Sarah Poser, Meredith Boyter Newlove/CDC via AP) (Uncredited)

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul declared a state of emergency on Friday in response to poliovirus, which has been detected since April in wastewater from four counties plus New York City.

Just one case has been confirmed — an unvaccinated man in his 20s who was diagnosed with paralytic polio in Rockland County in July. But one paralytic case is usually a sign of hundreds of additional infections, since only around 1 in 100 polio infections result in serious disease, according to New York’s declaration.

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Nassau County was the latest to find polio in its wastewater. The poliovirus found in a sample collected there in August was genetically linked to the paralytic case. The viruses found in another 50 samples collected from Rockland, Orange and Sullivan counties share the same genetic link.

Read more on NBC News here.


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