Poliovirus Detected In NYC Wastewater, Health Officials Say

NEW YORK CITY — The poliovirus has been detected in New York City wastewater, a finding that strongly suggests the now-rare virus is circulating in the city, health officials said Friday.

The discovery in city sewage follows a confirmed case of paralytic polio in a Rockland County resident on July 21 — the first in the United States since 2013.

Health officials raised alarms after that case — and the subsequent detection of poliovirus in Rockland and Orange County wastewater — not only because the virus can cause permanent paralysis and death, but also because of its proximity to New York City.

“For every one case of paralytic polio identified, hundreds more may be undetected,” said Mary Bassett, the state's health commissioner, in a statement. “The detection of poliovirus in wastewater samples in New York City is alarming, but not surprising."

Polio had once been one of the most feared diseases in the United States, but mass vaccinations in the 1950s and 1960s largely eradicated it, according to the CDC.

New York health officials noted, however, that polio vaccine in New York City children has fallen since 2019. Only 86.2 percent of city children between six months and 5 years old have received the three doses of polio vaccines, officials said.

Some New York City neighborhoods — such as parts of Williamsburg, Bedford-Stuyvesant and Battery Park City — have polio vaccination coverage as low as 56.3 percent, according to city health data.

City health Commissioner Ashwin Vasan said the reappearance of polio should be a call to action, especially because it is preventable.

“The risk to New Yorkers is real but the defense is so simple – get vaccinated against polio,” he said in a statement. “With polio circulating in our communities there is simply nothing more essential than vaccinating our children to protect them from this virus, and if you’re an unvaccinated or incompletely vaccinated adult, please choose now to get the vaccine."

Related coverage:

• NY Confirms 1st Case Of Polio In U.S. Since 2013
• 'Tip Of The Iceberg': More Polio Virus Detected In The Hudson Valley
• Rockland Polio Strain Matches Virus Samples In London, Jerusale