New York polio case is the 'tip of the iceberg,' hundreds of others could be infected

Source: CNBC

Hundreds could have polio after an adult in the New York City metro area caught the virus and suffered paralysis last month, the state’s top health official said this week. New York state Health Commissioner Mary Bassett warned that the confirmed polio case in an unvaccinated adult, coupled with the detection of the virus in sewage outside the nation’s largest city, could indicate a bigger outbreak is underway.

“Based on earlier polio outbreaks, New Yorkers should know that for every one case of paralytic polio observed, there may be hundreds of other people infected,” Bassett said. “Coupled with the latest wastewater findings, the department is treating the single case of polio as just the tip of the iceberg of much greater potential spread.”

Bassett said it is crucial that children are vaccinated by the time they are 2 months old, and all adults — including pregnant women —who have not received their shots should do so immediately. “As we learn more, what we do know is clear: The danger of polio is present in New York today,” Bassett said.

New York state health officials confirmed last month that an unvaccinated adult in Rockland County had caught polio and was hospitalized with paralysis. Health officials subsequently found three positive polio samples in Rockland County wastewater and four positive samples in the sewage of adjacent Orange County. The sewage samples that tested positive for polio are genetically linked to the strain which the unvaccinated adult caught. The findings do not indicate that the individual who caught polio was the source of transmission, but local spread could be underway, health officials said.

Read more: https://www.cnbc.com/2022/08/05/new-york-polio-case-tip-of-iceberg-hundreds-of-others-could-be-infected.html

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Full headline: New York polio case is the ‘tip of the iceberg,’ hundreds of others could be infected, health official says

I know the wastewater testing has been ongoing (and is continually expanded) for COVID-19 monitoring but I hope other wastewater monitoring locations are or will start testing for stuff like Polio, which at one time was often attributed to transmission through ingestion of the virus from fecal matter in untreated water (like untreated pools or I expect even those large water fountain displays/sculptures - both of these being popular features used during heatwaves for "cooling off" and the U.S. has certainly been in the heat).