"In July, a 20-year-old man from Rockland County, N.Y., was diagnosed with polio, a disabling and potentially deadly disease that had been considered eliminated in the United States. The infected man was unvaccinated and had not traveled overseas during the period when he could have been exposed to the virus, suggesting he contracted it in this country. Wastewater testing has since shown that the virus is present in nearby New York City, as well as Rockland and neighboring Orange counties. It was also found in the wastewater in London, prompting authorities to offer children ages 1 to 9 a vaccine booster. No cases have been reported there.
Polio was at its peak in the U.S. in the 1940s and ’50s, terrorizing parents who watched their children losing the use of their limbs or gasping for oxygen when the virus attacked the muscles of their chests.
Paralytic polio can’t be cured, but it can be prevented with safe and effective vaccination; the polio vaccine has been part of the standard schedule of childhood vaccinations for decades."
Frances Stead Sellers reports for the Washington Post August 22, 2022.
SEE ALSO:
"Public Health Experts Sound The Alarm As New Polio Cases Emerge" (PBS)
"Spate Of Polio Outbreaks Worldwide Puts Scientists On Alert" (Nature)
"Polio Vaccines Are Urged in New York as Once-Defeated Virus Lurks" (Wall St. Journal)
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