After 100+ NY Polio Wastewater Samples, Health Officials Report Zero

NEW YORK — The State Health Department released a Poliovirus Wastewater Surveillance Report Monday, detailing the flow and ebb of polio in the Hudson Valley, Queens and Nassau County over the past 17 months.

Polio, which had been declared eliminated in the U.S. in 1979, appeared in New York in July 2022. The first case of paralytic polio in years affected an unvaccinated young Rockland County man.

RELATED: NY Confirms 1st Case Of Polio In U.S. Since 2013

Health officials discovered the virus was circulating in the Hudson Valley and then found positive samples genetically linked to the Rockland case in Queens and on Long Island. The findings provided evidence of local — not international — transmission, they said.

"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," then-State Health Commissioner Dr. Mary Bassett said Aug. 5, 2022. "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."

A viral disease that can affect the nervous system, polio is very contagious, and people can spread the virus even if they aren't sick. According to the New York State Health Department:

• Polio spreads from person-to-person through contact with poop (often tiny, invisible amounts) from an infected person. More rarely, it can spread through the sneeze or cough droplets from an infected person.
• Polio is very contagious, and not everyone who is infected with polio will show symptoms. Some have mild or flu-like symptoms that can be easily mistaken for another type of virus.
• Still, all infected people can spread the virus and infect others, even if they have no symptoms.

Though rare, some polio cases can result in paralysis or death. Survivors may develop post-polio syndrome 10 to 40 years after recovery from an initial infection. PPS is characterized by further weakening of muscles that were previously affected by the polio infection. Symptoms include fatigue, slowly progressive muscle weakness and deterioration. Joint pain and bone deformities are common. PPS is generally not life-threatening. There is no known cause or effective treatment for PPS.

In the late 1940s and early 1950s, before vaccines were available, polio outbreaks caused more than 15,000 cases of paralysis each year, with U.S. deaths peaking at 3,145 in 1952, The Associated Press reported. Outbreaks led to quarantines and travel restrictions. Soon after vaccines became widely available, American cases and death tolls plummeted to dozens in the 1960s.

After the 2022 case was identified by the state's Wadsworth Center Laboratory and confirmed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the state health department launched wastewater surveillance — a tool to check for signs of the virus in sewage water in communities, as people infected with polio shed virus in their stool.

Testing detected poliovirus repeatedly in samples collected from Rockland, Orange and Sullivan counties and in a few samples collected from New York City and Nassau County.

Sequencing analysis from the CDC showed most were genetically connected to the paralyzed polio victim in Rockland County.

The most recent detection of poliovirus in wastewater was where it started, in Rockland, in February, according to the new surveillance report:

• Rockland had 45 samples where polio was detected in the period covered by the report, all between June 2022 and February 2023.
• Orange County had 31 samples with detected virus, between April and December 2o22.
• Sullivan had 13, found between July and October.
• New York City had 11, between June and October.
• Nassau County had 1, in August 2022.

Polio was never detected in Putnam, Suffolk, Ulster or Westchester counties.

Adults who live or work in the areas where poliovirus has been repeatedly detected in wastewater (Rockland, Orange, and Sullivan counties) and are unvaccinated, under-vaccinated, or don't believe they are vaccinated should get all recommended vaccine doses, health officials said.

The on-time administration of polio immunizations is critical to keep New Yorkers and children protected against paralytic polio disease, especially for those in Rockland County, Orange County, and Sullivan County, as well as New York City and Nassau County, they said.

The inactivated polio vaccine, the only vaccine available in the U.S., protects 99 to 100 percent of people against disease who receive all recommended doses. Learn more about polio immunization here, and check polio vaccination rates for children by two years of age by county here and by ZIP code here.