The Polio Outbreak in New York Could Be a Global Health Risk

Officials in New York are very concerned about an outbreak of polio, which is the latest in a series of infectious diseases that have affected the state.

The US was polio-free in 1979 after high vaccination rates. However, the disease has reappeared in multiple counties, and one person has been declared disabled. The person who was declared disabled was not vaccinated. It is believed that they are one of the hundreds of individuals in the state infected with the virus.

Current Situation

In New York, the vaccination rate for polio is 79 percent. However, Rockland County, which has a population of 330,000, only has a vaccination rate is only 61 percent.

The positive results from Rockland marked the first case of the disease in the US in over a decade. In 2019, the country experienced something similar with a measles outbreak that resulted in over a thousand cases. By controlling the spread of the disease, the US could keep its measles elimination status.

In response to the polio outbreak, New York State Governor Kathy Hochul declared a disaster in the state. She allowed midwives, pharmacists, and emergency medical service workers to give polio vaccinations.

Around The World

In Jerusalem and London, the virus has also affected multiple individuals. The virus found in these countries is not wild and is actually derived from a vaccine.

When a person gets vaccinated using a weakened oral polio vaccine, the weakened virus can replicate in their gut. This activates an immune response and can trigger an outbreak. Usually, the vaccine can’t mutate and spread to other people unless the coverage rate for immunization drops.

However, a newer, inactivated vaccine version does not trigger this process. It is not as effective at stopping an outbreak and is harder to distribute than the traditional vaccine. Because of this, countries still battling wild polio usually use the oral version of the vaccine.

Experts believe the cases might have been caused by the oral version of the vaccine used in some countries such as Pakistan and Afghanistan. Although polio is usually asymptomatic, people can contract the virus even if they don’t appear sick. It can cause flu-like symptoms and can cause irreversible paralysis.

Conclusion

New York and London’s situation highlighted the importance of vaccinating against polio. As long as the virus circulates in other places, it is still a risk to everyone. There is a limited window of opportunity to eliminate polio, and people must continue to get vaccinated.

ABOUT FRANCESCA ROME-MARIE

Based in Rome, Italy, Francesca Rome-Marie is a compassionate and dedicated healthcare professional who has spent her life building a career in the service of others. She works in areas focused on health, humanitarian aid, and human development particularly focused on the nonprofit/not-for-profit sectors doing work in underserved and marginalized communities.

Throughout her career, Francesca Rome-Marie’s work and experience have helped her to develop skills in multiple areas. Her experience includes family medicine, nursing, family nursing, primary care, community health, mental health, global health, medicine, research, reproductive health, preventative medicine, and family nursing. She is also skilled in areas that include human rights activism, crisis counselling, sexuality education, gender theory, gender studies, cross-cultural communication skills, humanitarian assistance and intervention, interpersonal communication, nonprofit organizations, and disaster response, recovery, and preparedness. Francesca Rome-Marie has developed a particular passion for work in areas regarding sexuality and gender as well as refugees, forced displacement, health, and rights.

As part of her work in mental health and gender studies, Francesca Rome-Marie understands just how deeply a role that respect for individual dignity and sovereignty plays when it comes to making decisions about one’s own body and life. She has developed a commitment to viewing an individual’s mental and physical health through the lens of not only gender, sexual, and reproductive rights but also gender-based violence.